The SIS Computing Labs maintains these pages to support the exclusive use of labs equipment by Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff of the School of Information Sciences. Located on these pages is online documentation, hours, policies, updates, and other information useful to the labs user. For software support, please check the support section of this site before approaching staff, as many frequently asked questions are clearly answered there. If you cannot find answers to your questions, please ask the on-duty lab GSA, who is trained to answer basic computing questions. Homework assistance should be obtained from professors, course instructors, or course GSAs -- not the labs staff or GSAs.

The School of Information Sciences has developed outstanding computer labs for education and research. Computing resources for the exclusive use of SIS graduate students, faculty, and staff include a Sun Enterprise 4500 compute server, a Sun UltraSPARC cluster with associated 2/3 TB RAID array, 16 Sun UltraSPARC workstations and 29 Pentium-based Windows systems.

Computing equipment throughout the building is connected via a LAN (local area network), which employs a fiber backbone utilizing Extreme Network's Gb Ethernet technology. Software in the PC labs is shared through a Microsoft server. Peripheral hardware, including laser printers, scanners (flat-bed and slide), and CD-ROM read-write drives, also contributes to this rich environment for learning, teaching, and research.

Other labs, including the Telecommunications and Networking labs and an Experimental Research Configuration lab, provide space for student and faculty research projects. The Telecommunications lab for student experimentation is equipped with a LAN made up of 20 PCs and a file server. The Telecommunications and Networking labs also house AT&T System 75 telephone switches, T1 and M13 multiplexers, an FTC3 transmission system, and other specialized equipment, all of which are available for experimentation.

Pitt's University-wide resources include centralized academic computing with a cluster of machines supporting DEC Alpha-based VMS, Sun Unix, and the Andrew File System (AFS). In addition, multiple private and public university subnets are linked by an ATM/Ethernet backbone to such specialized resources as the Pittsburgh Super Computing Center's Cray C90 and massively parallel T3E supercomputers, a graphics and CAD laboratory, and public labs located in other campus buildings.