Research facilities

The School runs a large heterogeneous network of servers, workstations, PCs and a Beowulf parallel computing cluster. We also have access to the University high performance computing facility, based on a Silicon Graphics Origin2000 with 32 processors and another Beowulf machine with 20 processors.

Our own high performance, fully switched network, provides 10 Megabit and 100 Megabit ethernet to desktop workstations and PCs, and upto Gigabit ethernet to our servers. Connection to the campus network is by a dedicated 155 Megabit ATM link.

The School is a key partner in the Informatics Research Network, a newly formed collaboration of research groups from across the University with a common interest in informatics. The Network is supported by the School's Informatics research group, both administratively and through the provision of state-of-the-art specialized computing facilities including:

	A virtual environments laboratory equipped with a TAN Holodesk (to create a virtual 3D volume of space), cybergloves and haptic interface devices;
	A conferencing room equipped with large screen projection, video conferencing, a plasma e-whiteboard, video cameras, and stereo sound;
	A next-generation SGI Onyx3 system with eight processors and three graphics pipelines.

A new £1 million laboratory is planned for completion within two years, to support most of our research groups. This will provide flexible accommodation, state-of-the-art computing infrastructure and specialized multi-media equipment. This infrastructure will be further strengthened by a White Rose Computational and Data Grid providing researchers in Leeds, York and Sheffield with leading edge high performance computing and data storage facilities. An investment in these facilities of over £3 million is planned for the academic year 2001/2.

SoCResearch Facilities