Computing facilities

Center for Space Physics

Research Facilities & Instruments

The Astronomy/Space Physics computing facilities serve all members of the Department of Astronomy and Center for Space Physics. Our network continuously grows and changes as we replace old machines with new, so the description here will almost always be out of date. At the current moment we have approximately 200 machines, dominated by three architectures: Solaris workstations, MS Windows PC's, and Linux PC's.

Unix

At the core of this system are five UNIX machines hosting many of our web pages and providing mail services, disk space, and printer access. The host machines provide two tape drives, cd-rom readers and a cd-rom writer. Attached to this core is a network of unix workstations, windows PC's, and many printers.

Personal Computers

In addition to our Unix workstations we have many personal computers. We support PC's running Microsoft Windows and Office, as well as the Linux (RedHat version) operating system. Many of the PC's can boot into either Windows or Linux at the behest of the user.

Additional Local Facilities

Black and white PostScript laser printers are scattered throughout the department and are available to all platforms. We also have two color PostScript printers, and three color HP printers. We also have a large format color HP printer capable of producing output 36" wide by almost any length. We also have three X terminals.

Additional BU Facilities

Boston University provides extensive facilities beyond our local capabilities. Information Technology (IT) is the branch of BU charged with supporting these facilities - some of the facilities they provide which are most useful to us:

Scientific Computing and Visualization

Center for Computational Science

Personal Computing Support Center (PCSC)

Tutorials in Computing