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.