Links

SETI@home

When our machines are not working to produce useful results for us, they are working on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It is a distributed computing effort to sort through the monsterous amount of radio information gathered by the radio telescope at the Arecibo Radio Telescope facility in Puerto Rico. For information about our group's contributions using the SETI@Home client, stop by our SETI@Home page.

Linux

Linux is a free (as in speech), open-source, Unix-like operating system. It runs on a multitude of different hardware, from Palm Pilots to mainframes, but is most commonly run on PCs. It's a stable platform for just about any work you do. It's the OS that runs this web server. You wouldn't call the above link the "offical" Linux site, but it does contain a good amount of information about Linux.

Debian Linux

Debian is a free, or Open Source, operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. At the core of an operating system is the kernel. The kernel is the most fundamental program on the computer, does all the basic housekeeping and lets you start other programs. Debian is kernel independent. It currently uses the Linux kernel but work is in progress to provide Debian for other kernels, using the Hurd.

Alpha Microprocessor

For our computations, we use workstations based on the Alpha microprocessor, currently the world's fastest fp/int performer for a single processor. It is manufactured through a joint venture of Compaq and Samsung Electronics. It can't be beat for computational power per dollar.