Resources

The Computer Science Department at Harvey Mudd has an extensive pool of resources for the benefit of staff and students alike. These resources include not only the computer hardware and software in our labs, they also include a large library, several meeting rooms and labs to work in comfortably, and many knowledgeable people to answer questions and provide help.

Also see HMC's CIS Documentation on all the computing resources available at Mudd.

Hardware and Software

The Computer Science Department houses many different kinds of computers, all a part of the CS subnet - 134.173.42.XX, including:

• Our main server knuth is an IBM xSeries 366, having 4 64-bit Xeon processors with 6 GB of RAM. Hyperthreading is enabled for a total of 8 logical processors. The machine runs Gentoo Linux.

• Our web server, kay (aka muddcs or www), is a Dell machine with a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor running Gentoo Linux. kay may be reached from the web at http://www.cs.hmc.edu/.

• We have another Dell server, wilkes, with dual 2.8 GHz Xeon processors also running Gentoo Linux. Wilkes is used primarily by the computer systems classes.

• Users in the Charles F. Parker Computer Systems Laboratory (also referred to as the terminal room) work on Apple Mac minis running Mac OS X.

• The Fletcher Jones Graphics Laboratory contains additional Mac minis as well as several 20" iMac computers.

• An Apple Xserve G4 named cortana provides Appleshare and SMB file sharing services and CUPS print queues.

• Our other Apple Xserve, a G5 called durandal, provides LDAP directory service for all of the department's systems.

• An Apple Xserve RAID connected to ark, a Dell server running Gentoo linux, adds several terabytes of usable disk space to our network.

• Clinic teams are provided with Dell Workstation PCs as needed, starting with one computer per team member. Student research projects often use identical machines.

• The main CS department printers for student use are gute 'n' berg, which are HP laser printers located in the terminal room and graphics lab. In addition, there is a printer on the second floor of Sprague library for clinic use and three printers in the CS department secretary's office.

For more information about our hardware or software, please view these links to the companies that supply us:

• IBM
• Dell Computer
• Apple Computer
• Gentoo Linux

Library

The Computer Science Department maintains an extensive library of computing materials for reference use by students, faculty, and staff. This library includes such materials as handbooks, periodicals, videos and software manuals. There are many books on different programming languages like perl, C, C++, ruby, python, LaTeX, PostScript, and UNIX shell programming which may all be borrowed for personal use. Many volumes on UNIX and the X Windows system by O'Reilly & Associates are also useful resources. The technical manuals and handbooks for software are also kept in the library.

Human Resources

One of the most important resources within the Computer Science Department is knowledgeable and helpful people. The system is mainly administrated by computer science students: about ten student staff, and about a dozen student consultants. These people are available to answer questions and provide assistance to students, and they also perform many of the tasks in maintaining the CS subnet and all its resources. Altogether, the computer science faculty, staff, student administrators and consultants, and students majoring in computer science are part of a broad knowledge base that is an incredible resource to the department. Nearly all of these people are willing to help others and share their knowledge. Please access the departmental people directory to access home pages and learn more about many of these people. The human component of the department resources is one of the richest and most useful available to the department.

Physical Space

The Computer Science Department is housed in several rooms in Olin and the Beckman underground on Harvey Mudd College campus. There are two labs (B102 and B105) located directly east of Beckman lecture hall, as well as the System Administrator's office (B101), the CS department conference room (B100), and the machine room (B104) which holds the main servers and the disk cluster. Beckman B111 contains the robotics lab. The faculty offices are in the south wing of Olin building. Workspace is provided for clinic teams on the second floor of Sprague library, but entry is restricted to authorized persons. Faculty research areas are also found on 2nd floor Sprague. The labs and workrooms provide students and staff with a comfortable place to work or meet without interruption. These rooms are all important resources within the department.