Abstract
The Maclab project in the Spring of 1988 demonstrated that providing a Macintosh workstation environment to some sections of EE 267 (Digital Logic Design Laboratory) was both useful and feasible on a small scale. The goals of the EE Student Workstation project this past Summer and Fall were: A. To provide all sections of EE 267 (approximately 200 students) with a Macintosh workstation environment for the simulation of digital logic circuits and for the preparation of reports. B. Tb provide a useful Macintosh workstation environment to other Electrical Engineering students. C. To transfer responsibility for operational aspects of the Macintosh Workstatiori facilities to the Engineering Computer Network (ECN). The opening of the new Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (MSEE) building in August 1988 provided space to establish the EE Student Workstation Laboratory; The facility occupies two rooms (186 and 190) within the terminal room complex of the MSEE building. The lab is equipped with 40 Macintosh Plus personal computers networked together via AppleTalk and bridged to the Engineering Computer Network (ECN). A Macintosh Il with two 40 Megabyte hard drives is used as an applications server. Application serving can also be handled by one of ECN's Sun Server Machines. Using Aufs (Apple-Unix file serving) software, students can access and store Macintosh files on their regular ECN UNIX accounts. Each room is equipped with a dot matrix and a laser printer for hard copy output. An "instructor's machine" is equipped with an LCD display and overhead projector so that large screen class demonstrations can be given. The goal of expanding use of MacIntosh student workstations to all EE267 students was successful. In addition, software purchases were made to make the facility a useful and productive environment for other EE students. Significant progress has been made in integrating this type of facility into normal ECN operations. This report describes the operation and status of the EE Student Workstation Labs as of the end of the 1988 Fall semester. Recommendations based upon the experience gained during the semester are made.
Date of this Version
1-1-1989
Comments
Supported in part by a grant from the Westinghouse Educational Foundation