The University of Arizona
Computing Facilities

Computing Facilities

The Department of Computer Science is located in the Gould-Simpson Science Building where we maintain a variety of research and instructional facilities for CS student and faculty use.

There are seven CS computing laboratories within Gould-Simpson: A combined graphics and general instructional Lab in GS 930 (a 41-station Intel i7 based Linux PC facility with high resolution LCD monitors), a general Instructional Lab in GS 228 (a 47-station mix of Intel Xeon and Core 2 Duo based Linux machines), and six Research Labs (in GS 732, 748, 756, 913, 914 and 915). There are also project, conference, and discussion rooms scattered throughout our floors. The department strives to maintain a three year replacement cycle on all instructional computing equipment.

Access to student computing labs is made available via electronic keycard or cipher lock seven days a week, 24 hours per day. All CS computing labs are located in the Gould-Simpson Science Building as are our faculty, lab support staff, and academic support services.

Students receive accounts on our main timesharing machine, Lectura (a quad-core multiprocessor, Intel Xeon based system running Linux). All computers have access to gigabit ethernet and direct Internet connectivity. A Sun Fire X4540 file server with approximately 48 terabytes of available file storage provide shared data access across systems.

Preceptors hold consulting hours and demonstrations in the instructional labs. Department offices and instructional labs are equipped with redundant print stations and wireless access (802.11g at 54Mb). Students can use their personal laptops on the UA wireless networks in CS labs or lecture halls. All CS students have access to our Commons Room in 737 with meeting area, library, and access to the Internet.

Our Research Labs offer a variety of equipment for use in student and faculty research projects. These labs contain Mac, Windows, and Linux OS systems, specialized printers, graphics and visualization devices, and a PC cluster. The 10-node Intel P4 cluster on switched gigabit ethernet is intended for computation-intensive projects.

In an effort to harness unused CPU power from otherwise idle desktop workstations, the department offers CSGrid. Using the Wisconsin Condor software, workstations within the department are made available for remote batch computing. CSGrid is currently 88 nodes and growing. Spare computing cycles from the CSGrid have been used to solve complex computational problems of the Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory at The University of Arizona as well as in CS.

Additional information about Condor on the CS department machines is available at this page: Condor On CSc Computing Facilities.

CS majors retain their accounts and access to lab facilities throughout their course of study. Graduating CS majors are offered continuing alumni accounts with email forwarding.

CS students, faculty, and staff receive University computing and email accounts through University Information Technology Services (UITS). UITS maintains the main campus communications backbone and our external Internet and Internet2 connectivity.

UITS offers a variety of computing facilities which complement Computer Science resources. In addition to student computing labs distributed across campus, UITS's High Performance Computing Center (HPC) provides campus access to

UITS's HPC Center also runs a 64 processor Beowulf Linux cluster using AMD 2000MP+ processors with 2 GB memory and 2 GB of swap space per compute node.

For individuals requiring more computing power than the CSGrid provides, UITS's HPC Center sponsors their own grid computing initiative, UAGrid, using the Condor software. UAGrid is designed to make available spare CPU cycles University-wide as an alternate computing resource. There are currently 100 nodes across campus made available in this way.

Finally, UITS provides a state of the art Scientific Visualization Lab, AZ-LIVE, for campus use. AZ-LIVE is a room where university researchers, faculty, and students can be immersed in a three dimensional, computer generated world. The environment combines 3D computer graphics, stereoscopic projection technology, acoustical tracking devices, and four-channel audio to create the illusion of being present in a virtual world.


Last updated March 5, 2012
Send questions about this page to