Request for Equipment Trust Funds Computer Science Department 12 August 1996 TOTAL REQUEST: $375,612 PRIORITY 1: UNDERGRADUATE LAB, CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION ENHANCEMENTS, AND REPLACEMENT OF EXTREMELY OLD FACULTY WORKSTATIONS ($161,250) (18) Pentium P200-based PCs with 17" monitor, 2G disk, 24M RAM, sound cards, 10baseT Ethernet, Windows NT, FreeBSD, $72,000 ($4000 each) (2) 64M memory upgrade for DEC Alphastation, $2600 ($1300 each) (2) 9 Gbyte disk, $6000 ($3000 each) (3) Networked laser printers, $8,400 ($2800 each) (1) UNIX workstation, in configuration to serve World-wide Web pages, $10,000 (1) UNIX workstation, in configuration to act as a caching proxy server for World-wide Web pages, $7000 (3) UNIX workstations to replace extremely obsolete faculty workstations, $18,000 ($6000 each) (6) Laptop computers (Pentium P75, 16M RAM, 540M disk) with Ethernet adaptors that can run FreeBSD UNIX, $27,000 ($4500 each) (15) 1G JAZZ drives with 1Gbyte cartridge, $9000 ($600 each) (1) SCSI PCMCIA card, $250 (1) Flatbed color scanner, $1000 Four pressures drive our first priority request. First, the number of undergraduate students in our program is growing rapidly. The 72 students that were graduated in AY 95-96 are being replaced by 310 freshman and external transfer students this fall, up from 255 entering students the previous year. Students can complete only some of their course work on the computer that they own; thus computer lab facilities in 116/118 McBryde must grow to handle the increased number of students. Although with last year's ETF allocation we improved networking facilities in 116/118 McBryde to handle more students by remote login, this year we must provide more computing cycles and memory, more disk space, and more cost effective printing. Ten of the 18 requested Pentium computers will replace obsolete DECstations based on a MIPS processor. The MIPS based computers have been discontinued for years, cannot run any Windows-based software now used in our curriculum, and sit idle in the lab as students vie for the few Pentium-based computers we now have. The remaining 8 of 18 Pentium computers will replace underpowered 486-based PCs with little memory and disk space, which cannot be used on a network to support multiple students logging in over the network. The 64M memory upgrade will allow the two main UNIX servers in the lab to handle growing network traffic. One of the 9 Gbyte disks requested will provide room for new student accounts and increasing large application programs uses in courses. The undergraduate lab now has only one general purpose laser printer available, which is inadequate to serve what will be an undergraduate population of about 700 students in Fall 1996. Thus we request two networked laser printers for the lab, and will chose a model that permits printing on both sides of a sheet of paper to reduce our expenditures on paper. To use our resources efficiently we plan to reuse the large monitors on the DECstations on existing PCs that now have 14" monitors in 116/118, and we plan to deploy the 486 computers to GTAs for courses that use PCs. The second pressure is delivery of course material in and out of class through the World-wide Web. At last count, over 4500 pages for over 25 courses were available on the Web. Almost every undergraduate CS, CpE, and non-major taking CS courses, every CS grad student, and CS faculty and staff all request pages from ei.cs.vt.edu on a daily basis -- a total that will reach almost 1000 users in Fall 1996! We have two growing problems. First, we need more disk space to put additional course materials on-line. One of the requested 9 Gbyte disks will solve this problem. The second problem is reliability. Currently a single UNIX workstation, ei.cs.vt.edu, serves course-related Web pages. In AY 95-96 this server has been unavailable several times, due sometimes to network problems in McBryde and other times due to too many users requesting Web pages. Therefore we request two additional UNIX workstations. One will be located in the Computing Center, and will be a mirror image of Web pages on ei.cs.vt.edu. This will address the reliability concern, because CS Web page access will fail only if both ei.cs.vt.edu and the requested machine are down or if the networks to both McBryde and the Information Systems Building are down. Second, we request a smaller UNIX workstation to act as what is known as a caching proxy server. This will allow many requests from within CS lab and office machines to be satisfied by the proxy server, without reaching the campus network and the Internet. The benefit is reduced network load created by Computer Science on the rest of campus, and more responsive page retrieval within Computer Science. The third pressure driving our request is that many of the present faculty office computers were purchased four to five years ago. They are incapable of running the state-of-the-art software that we use in on a daily basis in all undergraduate computer science classes today. We first replacement of three of these UNIX workstations, where the need is critical: on one, the instructor teaches courses on the Java programming language and World-wide Web technology, yet no Java capable Web browser (e.g., Netscape) or Java language compiler can be run on his workstation, which was purchased before the Web was invented. In a second case, the instructor delivers all course materials on the Web, including tests, and uses his office machine as a Web server, yet the machine crashes due to the load. In the third case, we cannot even attach the workstation to the 10baseT campus network because its network adaptor is too old. The second part of this request is for six laptop computers. The laptops, which run equivalent software to the PCs required for undergraduate students, will be added to a pool of machines that can be checked out by faculty, staff, and graduate students during a semester when they teach a FreeBSD-based course. Second, with the emphasis in Computer Science on using computers during classroom presentation, a laptop can be brought to class for lectures or demonstrations of UNIX. The fourth pressure driving our request is insufficient staff to support computing needs. Because we have insufficient staff to backup faculty computers, we would like to purchase a relatively inexpensive backup device for each faculty to do the task on their own. Thus we request 15 JAZZ drives and cartridges, and one SCSI interface card to allow a JAZZ drive to be connected to the aforementioned laptops. There are two remaining item in our PRIORITY 1 request: a networked printer and a flatbed color scanner. These will be located in the main office, and used by the staff for the ETF goal of "install[ing] high quality, easy access, network-deliverable student support services..." The printer will replace a five year old laser printer that takes several minutes for staff to print one sheet of paper produced containing any table or graphic, which is a long wait for students visiting our main office. The scanner will be used by the staff to scan images of various Computer Science department forms and degree-related materials now distributed in hardcopy form, and make these available to students on the World-wide Web. PRIORITY 2: GRADUATE LAB ENHANCEMENTS ($48,000) (15) 17" monitors for X-terminals, $12,000 ($800 each) (6) X-terminals with 17" monitors, $15,000 ($2500 each) (1) DEC Infoserver, for booting X-terminals, $5000 (4) Pentium P200-based PCs with 17" monitor, 2G disk, 24M RAM, sound cards, 10baseT Ethernet, Windows NT, FreeBSD, $16,000 ($4000 each) Our second priority request is replace obsolete graduate lab equipment that still works, but works poorly, and to provide our graduate students for the first time with access to Windows NT and Windows 95 software. The first three requests are to upgrade a subset of the 40 four to five year old X-terminals (terminals used to access UNIX workstations) used by graduate students. The 15 requested monitors fill two needs: the 15 monitors that will be replaced will be moved to PCs in our McBryde 116/118 undergrad lab, to replace 14" monitors that undergrad students and faculty have complained about. The 15 new monitors will provide higher contrast and color to the graduate students. The six requested X terminals will give us a few fast, modern X terminals for the most graphic intensive work by graduate students. The DEC Infoserver allows the X-terminals to boot (because they have no disk), and replaces a unit that is five years old expected to breakdown. Remarkably, our graduate students have just a single lab computer to use that runs Windows-based software. Increasingly common in our graduate courses is the case when a faculty member must choose inferior software for instruction that runs on UNIX or Macs instead of Windows. To satisfy the ETF goal of "provid[ing] every student with access to an appropriate level of ... technology," we request funds for four Windows NT based PCs for all graduate students to share. This will permit use for the first time in graduate classes of Windows based software that is critically needed. PRIORITY 3: ACCESS IN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION CLASSES TO INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY ($28,945) (1) Micro-ULab (Portable HCI Field Evaluation Apparatus), $28,945 The current facilities for Human-computer Interaction (HCI) students were provided by an NSF Research Infrastructure (RI) grant, and are restricted to equipment that can be used in a lab environment (specifically labs in McBryde). But in industry HCI studies are done in the field where computer users are located, not in a lab. The requested Micro-ULab would for the first time expose students in HCI classes to performing usability evaluation in the field, fitting the ETF program goal of "provid[ing] every student with access to an appropriate level of ... technology." The Micro-ULab logs user in video and audio computer usage sessions on a remote basis, and later helps analyze those sessions. Such a portable apparatus has only become available this year, so it would provide access to state-of-the-art technology not envisioned in the RI grant. PRIORITY 4: FURTHER UPGRADES TO UNDERGRADUATE LAB ($65,000) (10) OPENSTEP-based Pentium P200 PCs, 17" sony monitor, 2G disk, 2M RAM, SCSI interface, sound cards, 10baseT Ethernet, $65,000 ($6500 each) Students taking senior and grad level courses on simulation and on software engineering use advanced object-oriented techniques, and thus require computers that run specialized software. Currently the students use an operating system called NEXTSTEP on eight Pentium P60 PCs purchased three years ago. The machines were barely capable of running NEXTSTEP along with object-oriented application programs. Due to growth in undergraduate student population, ten machines are now required, rather than eight. Furthermore, a modern PC would allow the performance of the software to be more responsive and permit more ambitious class projects. This request also has a secondary benefit. Under PRIORITY 1 we state that 486-based PCs removed from the McBryde 116/118 would be distributed to GTAs. The 486 PCs are really inadequate for use because they have small disks (200-300M) and limited memory (8M). With PRIORITY 4, we would reuse the Pentium P60's for GTAs. PRIORITY 5: COMPUTERS TO ALLOW FACULTY TO HELP UNDERGRADS IN THEIR OFFICE ($38,700) (7) Laptop computers (Pentium P75, 16M RAM, 540M disk) or desktop (Pentium P200, 24M, 2G, 17") computers with Ethernet adaptors that can run Windows NT and FreeBSD UNIX, $31,500 ($4500 each) (2) Power Macintosh 7500/100, 16M/1G, Applevision 1710 display, $7200 ($3600 each) As mentioned in the justification for PRIORITY 1, many of the present faculty office computers was purchased four to five years ago. We would like to move these machines to graduate student desks to replace equipment that is up to eight years old (e.g., Mac II's), and in turn provide faculty with a choice of laptop or desktop computer. Note that these computers must be powerful enough to run UNIX as well as Windows based software. Many undergraduate CS courses now use Windows-based software, but most faculty can run only UNIX or Mac applications on their office machine. With this request, for the first time, faculty will be able to help students that visit their office with problems in programming assignments in either UNIX or Windows software. PRIORITY 6: REPLACEMENT OF OBSOLETE GRADUATE WORKSTATIONS ($33,717) (1) PXG Turbo Graphics card for DEC Alphastation, $3717 (1) Silicon Graphics Indigo^2 IMPACK 1000 workstation, $16,000 (1) UNIX workstation, $6000 (2) Pentium P200-based PCs with 17" monitor, 2G disk, 24M RAM, sound cards, 10baseT Ethernet, Windows NT, FreeBSD, $8,000 ($4000 each) Our lowest priority of requests addresses equipment that is obsolete, but which serves a subset of graduate students. The first two items on the list update our limited facilities for high-end graphics work. The first is a new high end graphics card for our most powerful UNIX workstation used for graphics. The current card has not only been discontinued by DEC, but will not be supported in future operating system releases. The second item is an up-to-date low end workstation for graphics software that runs only on Silicon Graphics workstations. We also request a funds for a UNIX workstation that replaces a six year old UNIX workstation. We also request two PCs to replace four year old UNIX workstations in specialized labs accessible to grad students with workstations that can also run Windows based applications.