The IBM SP will be retired from service at the end of the fall semester, December 15, 2003. The IBM SP has reached the end of its life cycle. It is no longer cost-effective to keep such old hardware in reliable service to support your research.

Two years ago, the faculty Research Computing Task Force recommended that ITC begin acquiring new, state-of-the-art computing platforms to serve as replacements to the IBM SP. (See the Final Report of March 2001 posted at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/rctf/.) ITC has done so over the last two years and the time has come to turn off the aged IBM SP.

The ITC Research Computing Support Group wants to insure that all users of the SP have migrated their code to newer High Performance Computing platforms well before December 15, 2003. There are several computing platforms to which you can migrate. These include two High Performance Computing Linux clusters, one with 64 nodes each with 1 GB of memory and 2 CPUs and one with 32 nodes each with 2 GB of memory and 2 CPUs. Details of these two clusters, including how to get started using them are available on the following Web pages:

http://www.itc.Virginia.EDU/research/linux-cluster/aspen/
http://www.itc.Virginia.EDU/research/linux-cluster/birch/

In addition, we have an IBM p640 Model B80 Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) computer. It has four 450 MHz Power3 II Processors, and 12 GB of total memory that is available to any processor. This system is intended as bridge system for those researchers whose local computational needs in software or libraries are tied to AIX. Currently it is accessed via the splogin as "huge class" of LoadLeveller; however, by the fall semester, it will be available as a separate computing platform using the same batch queuing system as the HPC Linux Clusters, PBSPro.

For some runs with less demanding memory requirements and no more than a one-hour CPU run time, the existing blue.unix AIX cluster may also be a suitable host system.

ITC's Research Computing Support group is available to assist you with this migration. We can help you determine the most appropriate platform for your computing work as well as answer questions or concerns during your migration. We encourage you to contact us by e-mailing us at Res-Consult@Virginia.EDU or calling the ITC Research Computing Support Center at 243-8800.

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Research Computing Support Talks in September

The ITC Research Computing Support Group is presenting a series of talks that provide an overview of the computer resources available at U.Va. The aim of these talks is to provide researchers, as well as anyone at U.Va., with an overview and details about ITC computing resources that may help you to get a quicker start on your research and do your computing more efficiently.

You will also be able to pick up copies of software distributed by the ITC Research Computing Support Group such as SAS, Matlab, IDL, etc. after each talk.

Each talk is an independent session, just attend the talks that are of interest to you. Each talk starts at 3:30 in the Research Computing Support Center (RCSC), 244 Wilson, and will last 60 to 75 minutes. The schedule is:

• Tuesday, September 9: An Overview of Research Hardware, Software, Support, and Data Storage
• Thursday, September 11: Statistical Software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, S-PLUS)
• Tuesday, September 16: Mathematical and Visualization Software. (e.g., Matlab, Mathematica, IDL)
• Thursday, September 18: High Performance Computing

We will continue our ongoing Brownbag Talk Series at 3:30pm on October 8 and 29th. Watch for details about these.

If you have any questions about these talks, please contact us at: res-consult@virginia.edu or 243-8800.

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SAS, SPSS and S-PLUS Workshops for the Fall Semester

We will be giving introductory workshops on the SAS, SPSS, and S-PLUS statistical packages. Preregistration is required, but there is NO fee for taking the workshop. There is, however, a "no-show" fee charged for enrolling but not showing up and not canceling your registration in advance.

Registration: To register for any of these classes, please send e-mail to dot-reg@virginia.edu or call 243-5998.

• Introduction to SAS: Monday, September 15 & Wednesday, September 17. SAS Version 8.x workshop is two sessions from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in Bryan 203. Second session on Wednesday, September 17, builds on what was covered on Monday, September 15. Details are at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/sas/training/ov-sas-fun.html
• Introduction to SPSS: Monday, September 22 & Wednesday, September 24. SPSS Version 11 workshop is two sessions, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in Bryan 203. Second session on Wednesday, September 24, builds on what was covered on Monday, September 22. Details are at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/spss/training/ov-spss-fun.html
• Introduction to S-PLUS: Monday, Septeber 29 & Wednesday, October 1. S-PLUS Version 6.x workshop is two sessions from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in Bryan 203. Second session on Wednesday, October 1, builds on what was covered on Monday, September 29. Details are at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/splus/training/ov-splus-fun.html

If you are an instructor and would like an introductory workshop tailored to your class's needs on any of our fully-supported packages (e.g., SPSS, Matlab, Maple) please e-mail res-consult@virginia.edu, or call the Research Computing Support Center 243-8800.

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Apple High-Performance Computing Presentation on Sept. 11

There will be a lunch meeting on September 11, 2003 at which Apple will discuss the Xserve, Xserve RAID, and G5 products. Come hear about an Xserve cluster at U.Va. and enter to win an iPod.

For more information and to reserve a seat, go to: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/dcs/apple/.

If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Hopkins (nlb5x@virginia.edu) or Tom Spraggins (tas@virginia.edu).

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Sun Product Update Meeting on Sept. 15

The Sun Product Update Meeting will be September 15th from 12noon - 2pm. The meeting will be at the ITC Research Computing Support Center in Wilson Hall. Below is a summary of the products that will be discussed:

Entry Level Servers - Solaris/Sparcx86/linux
Midframe Servers - V1280-6800
Solaris
Storage
Desktops/Workstations

Lunch will be provided by Sun for the meeting. Please confirm if you will be attending so we can plan accordingly for lunch; email res-consult@virginia.edu.

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Virginia SAS Users Group Meeting on September 24

The next meeting of the Virginia SAS Users Group will be held in Richmond at Dominion Virginia Power on Wednesday, September 24. For the full schedule of presentations, visit VASUG at http://www.vasug.org.

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ITC Announces New Services Directory

Now there's a one-stop Web page where you can check out all the many services provided by ITC. Got a specific need? Just do a keyword search to see how ITC can help you. The ITC Services Directory is located online at

http://www.itc.virginia.edu/services

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Registering Your On-Grounds Computer for Network Access

This announcement is applicable only to U.Va. faculty and staff on Grounds in Charlottesville who are connected directly to the U.Va. network.

In order to ensure a quick response to a number of issues that have emerged with computers connected to the U.Va. network, the University is asking you to register your computer.

Registration is a simple process that can be completed in a few minutes. When you open a Web browser, please go to https://web.virginia.edu/microsys/register/ and follow the instructions.

Please register the computer(s) you normally use at your desk on Grounds. If you are registering a laptop computer, please connect to the Ethernet using a cable and disable your wireless card during the process by either pulling it out or turning it off.

You will need an account on Blue Unix, Home Directory, CMS, or HSC Exchange to register your system. (If you do not have a login and password on one of these services, there is no need to register your computer at this time.)

If you have any questions, please call the ITC Help Desk at 4-3731.

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Now is the time to encourage your colleagues and students to join us and learn about research computing support at U.Va. We only send out an e-mail once or twice a month to this maillist. Anyone can subscribe to this "itc-research" maillist by sending an e-mail to: majordomo@virginia.edu with these two lines:
    subscribe itc-research
    end
Please encourage your colleagues to subscribe to our Research Computing maillist today!

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