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DDD Letter #40 |
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ATTENTION: Deans, Directors, Department Heads, and Other Interested Parties
This communication is to announce availability of our general-access Unix system, an IBM SP (RISC/6000 Scalable PowerParallel System), as well as a site license for X-Windows.
Eligibility: Faculty and graduate students at the University of Connecticut are eligible for Unix accounts for research purposes. Accounts may be requested by department heads for administrative applications. We hope to provide class accounts to faculty later this year, probably in the fall semester. Applications for accounts can be obtained through the Computer Center Accounts Office, room M001, Ground Floor of the Math Science Building.
Rate Structure: Research projects that are funded and grant or self-supported activities are expected to pay for computer usage. The rate for CPU time is $15.00 per hour. Permanent disk space is granted at a soft limit of 20 MB and a hard limit of 50 MB. Temporary space is allocated in the amounts of 300 MB soft limit and 1000 MB hard limit. If you need to obtain permanent disk space beyond the default allocations, it can be rented at the rate of $0.30 per megabyte per year. Detailed documentation is available as indicated below.
Documentation: On-line documentation on the system is located at http://www.sp.uconn.edu on the World Wide Web. Hard copy documentation will be located in the Macintosh Lab, in room M037.
Software & Access: Software currently installed includes FORTRAN, C, C++, ESSL/6000, OSL, Mathematica, Maple, TeX, and other packages. SAS has been ordered and will be installed in the near future. The system runs IBM's AIX 4.1 operating system, and is capable of running any software that runs on an RS/6000. There is also a web server, called WN, which may be used to create web pages and CGI scripts.
The system provides both interactive and batch access. You can login to the system at login sp.uconn.edu using a PC, Macintosh, or Unix workstation. A variety of methods are supported, including:
Training & Other Information: A series of workshops will be provided beginning in Summer 1996, and will include an introduction to the SP, Unix basics, and LoadLeveler (the batch system). Additional topics, such as X-Windows, will be offered in the fall.
There will also be a Listserv discussion list, called UCONNSP-L (alias UCSP-L), devoted to discussion of UConn's SP machine. This list will also be used to post announcements regarding changes and enhancements to the system. To subscribe, send a command of this form: Sub UCONNSP-L Firstname Lastname to UConn's Listserv server at LISTSERV@UConnVM.UConn.Edu. UCONNVM users may have to use the short name, UCSP-L.
Restrictions:
X-Windows Site License: The Computer Center has obtained a campus-wide site license for an X-Windows package called eXodus, from White Pine Software. eXodus runs on PC/Windows and Macintosh. Faculty, graduate students, and staff may purchase copies directly from White Pine Software, at the price of $118.00 per copy. There is a yearly maintenance fee of 15%.
White Pine Software may be contacted at:
X-Windows provides a graphical, windows-like interface for accessing remote computers (usually Unix machines) over the network. X-Windows can be used as an alternative to Telnet, to access UConn's SP system, or most other Unix machines, in graphical mode.
Network performance considerations may argue in favor of character-mode connections, such as Telnet or VT100 emulation for uses including editing, compiling, and running programs. For other situations, a graphical interface may be preferred, especially if the software package of interest provides a graphical interface. LoadLeveler, the batch queuing system for the SP, provides a very nice graphical interface, which can be accessed through X-Windows.
eXodus will be installed in the Macintosh Training Lab sometime this summer. We are in the process of upgrading the Macintosh machines to faster processors, with 17" color monitors. This should provide a very acceptable platform for running X-Windows. The Macintosh Training Lab may be reserved for instructional purposes. When not being used for training, this lab may be used to access the SP or other Unix machines using X-Windows.
It should also be noted that all the PC and Macintosh labs in the Computer Center have character-mode Telnet clients installed. This makes the SP accessible from any of the public machines in the Computer Center, in character mode.
Additional information concerning an X-Windows package for OS/2 will be forthcoming in the near future.