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Governance Minutes ArchiveDecember 6, 1989
MINUTES Computer Committee Fourth Floor Burruss Hall Board Room December 6, 1989 3 PM PRESENT: Don Allison, Jim Baranowski, Jeff Birch, John Cosgriff, David Goodyear, Tom McAnge, Fred Medley, Harlan Miller, Ernie Stout, Jim Thomas, Mike Williams ABSENT: Darrell Bosch, John Burton, Bob Heterick, Jim Hicks, Katherine Johnston, Dennis Jones, Joan McLain-Kark, Jim Montgomery, Richard Sorensen, Jeff Wilcke, Barbara Young VISITOR(S): Barbara Robinson and Bill Sanders (Computing Center) AGENDA ITEM 1: MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER 1, 1989 MEETING Motion made, seconded and passed to approve the minutes of the November meeting. AGENDA ITEM 2: COMPUTING CENTER REPORT (WILLIAMS) UNIX is available on the 3090 in test mode. Accounts may be ob- tained by contacting User Services. There are no usage charges during the test, except for standard printing charges. A pro- duction system is expected in January. Both Pascal and FORTRAN are available under the operating system, with the FORTRAN soon to be able to take advantage of the vector facility. VM Batch has been modified to simplify its structure and increase memory and CPU time limits. Since VM Batch is oversubscribed, each user is also now limited to three jobs in the queue, in or- der to equalize access to the service. A new Versatec electrostatic plotter is now available, capable of producing 400 dpi color plots. User Services is moving to the library on December 18. The of- fice will be closed on that day, but on-line consulting (4HELP) will be available, as usual. The output area in Burruss will be manned 24 hours a day after the move, and tapes will be processed there. (User Services will no longer handle tapes.) Three ex- press terminals will also be available in the library near con- sulting, in the lounge area. Output distribution was discussed. Problems have decreased, but should continue to be reported to Bruce Rakes. Output boxes have always been checked daily by the Center to ensure that each box contains only output designated for that box. The frequency of these "sweeps" has been increased. AGENDA ITEM 3: SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS The Computer Capacity and Planning subcommittee predicted in their report last year that VM usage would reach capacity by June, 1990. After reviewing recent figures, it appears that satu- ration will occur even sooner. It is clear that a system upgrade is necessary. An initiative to increase capacity has been pro- posed and is now being reviewed in Richmond. The committee is considering a survey of departmental needs for central computing. It is not clear whether such a survey would be worth the labor involved, and the subcommittee was asked to submit a detailed proposal. The issue of converting from IMS to a relational database was raised. Conversion would be very expensive. IMS is a very good transaction processor which handles such things as student regis- tration very well. The problems appear when you try to put inap- propriate functions in IMS. Inquiry functions, for example, may be better handled in other ways. DASD space (disk space) was discussed. It is a problem now, but four additional DASD units have been ordered, which should pro- vide temporary relief. The Personal Computer subcommittee is continuing to receive an- swers to their survey. Response has been good. AGENDA ITEM 4: ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA None. The next meeting will be held on January 10 at 3 p.m. in Burruss 400. (Since classes will not be in session on the first Wednes- day in January, the date of the meeting was moved to the second Wednesday.) Meeting adjourned at 4:04 p.m.
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