Research Computing
Research Computing
The Department has several computing facilities for which the specifications are outlined below.
Planning a research or instructional project involving Information Technology? Please come talk to us: we can offer insight into tech purchases, offer alternatives, and also plan for the effect your project may have on Departmental infrastructure. Our review of the IT portion of the project can strengthen the argument you make to the granting agency or industrial partner!Werewulf (W1-50)
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Located in the first floor of the west wing, this cluster consists of 40 Pentium II/233 computers running Red Hat Linux 6.2. Software available includes the LAM implementation of MPI, PVM, BLAS, gcc, and g77. GAMESS (General Atomic and Molecular Structure System), Gaussian 94, MOLDEN, and SuperMongo are also available. The cluster is available from 17:30 to 08:00, Monday through Friday, and all weekend. 24x7 operation commences with the end of Spring Term. Trouble with the cluster should be reported via e-mail to .
Beowulf
Constructed in mid-1999 for Professor PN Roy, this cluster consists of 16 PentiumIII/500 compute nodes with 512 MB SDRAM each, connected to a Foundry Networks FastIron Workgroup Switch and a PentiumIII/500 master node with 45 GB of disk.
Pleiades
Constructed in Fall 2001 for Professor PN Roy, this cluster consists of 20 Athlon 1200 compute nodes with 1536 MB SDRAM each, connected to an HP Procurve 2524 switch and an Athlon 1200 master node with 54 GB of disk.
Naegling
Constructed in Fall 2001 for Professor W Jäger, this cluster consists of 20 Athlon 1333 compute nodes with 1536 MB SDRAM each, connected to an HP Procurve 2524 switch and an Athlon 1333 master node with 54 GB of disk.
Oh
Constructed in 2002 for Professor M Klobukowski, this cluster consists of 12 dual AthlonMP 1800+ compute nodes with 2048 MB DDR RAM each, connected to an HP Procurve 2524 switch and a dual AthlonMP 1800+ master node with 54 GB of disk.
Plethora
Constructed in 2002/2003 for Professor PN Roy, this cluster consists of 89 dual AthlonMP 1800+ compute nodes with 1024 MB DDR RAM each, connected to an HP Procurve 4108 switch and a dual AthlonMP 1800+ master node with 36 GB of disk as well as a Snap Server 4100 with 240 GB of RAID5 disk.
Hrothgar
Constructed in 2002 as a departmental facility, this cluster consists of 20 dual AthlonMP 1800+ compute nodes with 2048 MB DDR RAM each, connected to an HP Procurve 2524 switch and a dual AthlonMP 1800+ master node with 54 GB of disk. See Scott for access or details.
Workstation and Server Support
Commercial UNIX (SGI/IRIX, IBM/AIX, and Sun/Solaris) as well as Linux boxes will be supported by Scott or CNS/UTR, depending on work load and time constraints. Research computing performed on Windows NT, 2000, or XP will also be supported.
Security of Workstations
The only computer that is secure is one that is off, unplugged, locked up, and entombed in concrete. Now, that cuts down on the utility of the resource, doesn't it? Well, there are some intermediate steps that can be taken to make your box sufficiently secure that the casual cracker will wander off in search of easier pickings. In fact, there are so many that we'll devote a whole page to security.
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