UMBC has had a long history of using Silicon Graphics (SGI) IRIX computers. Over the past few years, SGI has been struggling financially, and has not been continuing development of these technologies. The SGI computers used inside OIT include Titan, UMBC7, and Irix2.gl. The newest of these systems is 6 years old, and the oldest is over 10. OIT will eliminate these machines and remove them from service on August 31, 2007. If you are a current user of any of these systems, please be aware of other OIT supported computing options that are available for your use:
Applications - Applications that OIT has current software support arrangements for, such as Matlab, SPSS, SAS and Maple are available on OIT's centrally managed Linux and Solaris servers. Updated versions of popular open source software packages are also available on these other platforms.
Titan- For some time, OIT has had available a multiprocessor Linux-based server, hercules.rs.umbc.edu, which is many times more powerful than Titan. Many of the popular applications that have been used on Titan are available on this server and other computing resources. Users who have been granted access to Titan are also able to access this server; the filesystems and data that have been available on Titan are also available there. OIT is also working with the research computing subcommittee to further develop resources to be used for campus-wide research cmoputing. The only application which was specifically licensed for Titan is Spartan; users of this application have been previously notified and been given appropriate time to make alternate arrangements. It is available under other operating systems such as Linux and Windows in student or server editions.
UMBC7- UMBC7 has been primarily used by faculty and staff to access email. Most of our users have migrated to using our IMAP, POP or WebMail services. The pine email application is availble on our general purpose cluster under both Linux and Solaris. Users can access these servers by logging into:
*linux.gl.umbc.edu - For Linux access.
*solaris.gl.umbc.edu - For Solaris access.
Both of these servers provide a more modern computing environment than the existing UMBC7 server, and a similar suite of applications -- including, of course, the popular pine. OIT will also be augmenting and updating the solaris.gl.umbc.edu resource in conjunction with the retirement of UMBC7.
GL - OIT will be eliminating 'irix2.gl.umbc.edu' from service. Similar, or newer software, is available on the solaris.gl and linux.gl servers.
Outside of OIT, the migration away from SGI IRIX based systems has been in progress for some time. OIT no longer provides support for departmental IRIX-based computing resources.
Finally, OIT recognizes that change is always hard. We have held off discontinuing support for these systems as long as possible; however, these systems have reached the end of their useful life. If there are any issues we have not identified or addressed, please let us know so that we can be of assistance.