We are very pleased to announce the availability of a new UNIX computer called HAL. And, no, HAL is not named after the infamous computer from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." HAL is named after Hal Winsborough, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and founder of the Social Science Computing Cooperative. HAL is a 500 Mhz AlphaServer DS20 with two processors and 2.5 Gb of RAM which will provide an ideal place to run large STATA jobs and other programs that require lots of memory. At least for now, SAS will not be licensed on HAL. The SAS license is very expensive and we want to monitor usage to see if the license is needed. For a complete list of software availability, type "soft -a" at the UNIX prompt. Below is a comparison of various SSCC UNIX computers: CPU CPU Speed /tmp Speed Relative No. RAM Space Server in Mhz to 300Mhz CPUs in Mb in Gb SAS STATA SPSS ----- ------ --------- ---- ----- ----- --- ----- ---- ELAINE 466 2.5 1 640 4 Yes Yes No GUY 300 1.0 3 1280 8 Yes Yes No HAL 500 3.0 2 2560 10 No Yes No MARIAH 466 2.5 1 640 8 Yes Yes No NORMAN 466 2.5 1 640 4 No Yes Yes WINGRA 133 0.2 1 160 6 Yes Yes No (You can view an up-to-date table comparing SSCC UNIX computers by typing "computers" at the UNIX prompt.) Notes on relative speed column: o The relative speed column is a little misleading because it does not take into account that GUY and HAL have multiple CPU's and can therefore handle more simultaneous jobs than the other computers. o HAL is now the preferred machine for large STATA jobs. NORMAN is a great alternative though when its load is low. o GUY is still the preferred machine for SAS jobs. ELAINE is a good alternative for members of the Department of Sociology. MARIAH is a good alternative for members of the Center for Demography.