Synopsis

The Computer Science Department maintains a highly distributed, heterogeneous, networked computing environment consisting of UNIX/Linux, Windows, and Macintosh workstations and servers. This includes over 150 Linux workstations, 100 Windows PCs and Macs, and various servers, including multi-processor Sun and Linux servers, 3 Linux clusters (128-node dual Opteron, 16-node dual Opteron, and 8-node dual Xeon), a 16 node Apple Xserve G5 cluster, and SAN RAID disk storage, to support departmental research. Special-purpose teaching and instructional labs are also provided, including a 24-seat electronic classroom, hardware laboratories, and a multi-purpose undergraduate lab of Linux workstations.

The departmental network provides 1000Mbps gigabit ethernet connections to all workstations and servers as well as 802.11a/b/g wireless connectivity. The department has 10 gigabit ethernet connections with both the campus and research backbones, which provides high-speed access to university and worldwide computing resources Network services available within the department include laser and color printing facilities, CD-ROM/DVD access and recording, scanners, video, and various media storage facilities.

Facilities

Lindley Hall provides over 27,000 square feet, most of which is occupied by the Computer Science Department's research labs, conference rooms and offices. In the remaining areas, mostly on the subfloor, the campus-wide computing organization maintains three PC and Mac computer classrooms used in our undergraduate program, and two classrooms. The department has various research laboratory facilities: artificial intelligence, robotics and analog VLSI, programming languages, formal methods and digital VLSI, graphics and visualization, scientific computation, distributed and parallel systems, and databases research.

Workstations and Servers

The Computer Science Department maintains a highly distributed, heterogeneous, networked computing environment for our research, teaching, and administration needs. UNIX/Linux, Windows, and Mac workstations are all used and supported within the department.

The primary base for departmental UNIX workstations and servers consists of Linux, Sun, and Mac systems. These platforms are available to departmental faculty, students and staff. In addition to the UNIX workstations and servers, many groups use Windows systems. Windows applications are also available to users of UNIX workstations via a Windows Terminal Server, which uses Citrix Presentation Server to distribute Windows applications, and through the use of VMWare.

The research facilities in the department include: multi-CPU Sun Enterprise and Linux servers providing email, web, disk, and remote login services, over 150 Linux workstations, 4 research clusters (128-node dual Opteron/Linux, 16-node dual Opteron/Linux, 8-node dual Xeon/Linux, and 16-node Apple Xserve G5/OS X), and SAN RAID storage. In addition, various research groups have Windows and Macintosh workstations and notebooks.

The Network

The departmental network provides 1000Mbps gigabit ethernet connections to all workstations and servers as well as 802.11a/b/g wireless connectivity. The network was installed and is maintained and upgraded by the department's facilities staff, which gives the department a great deal of flexibility to support network-based research. The department is linked to both the campus backbone and research networks via two 10 gigabit ethernet connections. This link to the campus backbone provides connectivity to the myriad campus machines as well as to the Internet and the high speed Internet2/Abiline research networks. The link to the IU Research network provides connections to various IU research systems.

At the core of the departmental network is an HP ProCurve 3400 switch with 2 10Gbps and 48 1Gbps switch ports. Individual workstations are connected to one of 5 HP 4100M switches, each of which provides 1Gbps switch ports with an uplink to the HP 3400.

Peripherals Systems

In addition to the basic computing and networking capacity, the department has a significant peripherals capability. There are 15 laser printers and 3 color laser printers. High-speed, high-quality duplex laser printers are placed strategically and conveniently throughout Lindley Hall. Images can be captured and converted into computer-compatible formats with flat-bed scanners and video frame-grabbers. CD-ROM/DVD players are available for the Windows, Mac, and UNIX environments and CD/DVD recorders are available for creating CD-ROMs and DVDs. Backups are automatically performed daily using the ARCserve backup software to large disk arrays and LTO3 tape jukeboxes.

Instruction and Support Systems

Instructional labs use Windows, Macintosh or UNIX computers. Service course labs provide access to Macs and PCs for CS graduate students, mostly service course AIs. The department provides a special cluster of 36 Linux workstations for CS undergraduate majors, Internet and web server development and experimentation, and special class instruction in the department. The department also maintains a digital hardware lab using 9 PCs to interface with custom hardware. An electronic classroom is available in Lindley Hall 115 with 24 PCs, an instructor station that includes PC and Linux workstations, and a high resolution LCD projector.

Departmental administration uses PCs running Windows. These machines include a full complement of software, including communications clients and an X11 server providing full access to the UNIX facilities.

The department provides, supports and uses a wide variety of commercial, custom and freeware software. The World-Wide Web is the primary information system for the department, both internally and externally, and is used by faculty, staff and students for research, instruction and administration. The department's involvement with the Web dates to its earliest days, and CS people and resources have been involved in the development and support of significant Web servers, clients and services.

University Systems

Through the university, the department has access to additional computer resources for instruction and research, including central email, storage, and compute clusters, many clusters of PCs and Macs, as well as special service and peripheral sites with support services and consultation available. The university also provides a number of computing systems through Research and Technical Services.

The Pervasive Technology Labs at Indiana University are also closely tied to the Computer Science Department. A part of the Labs personnel and computing hardware currently resides in Lindley Hall and several multi-processor servers are available for collaborative work. This includes multi-processor Linux servers as well as an 8-node cluster.