Software And Computing Environment

This page contains pointers to documents on software and the computing environment at the MIT AI lab. See also technical notes on this server.

Beginners may wish to look at the DRAFT Novice Guide to the UNIX systems.

For nitty-gritty details, the major source of information on the local Sun environment is the local Info files, which contain the official documentation of numerous local software packages, including FSF and other software, and Emacs packages for reading mail and news, keeping an automatic rolodex, and so forth.

See in particular the sections on the local computing environment, including documents on unwedging emacs, importing new fonts, retrieving files from backup, and other topics. See also the sections on administering the machines, and general facilities.

Members of the lab have access to resources beyond those on their desks. The lab has access to a CM-2, CM-5, and several Lisp Machines. We also have information on campus computing services, including the MIT Supercomputer Facility. Unfortunately, much information on these is currently in places where the Web Server can't get at it. So, for those, I'll just describe the available resources:

CM-5

The CM-5 has 128 vector nodes and 20-odd gigabytes of very fast RAID disk. During the day, it runs as 3 partitions (32, 32, and 64 nodes); the whole machine operates as a unit for overnight batch runs. This machine is administered by LCS on behalf of more organizations than you can shake a stick at. However, the AI lab did chip in cash towards the purchase, so if you're here, you're entitled to use it. Hardcopy manuals are in the Reading Room; on-line documentation exists on the machine itself. Send mail to SC-help@sneezy.lcs.mit.edu for more information

CM-2

The older CM-2 is presently front-ended by soggy-fibers.ai.mit.edu. This is an "8K" CM-2, with 32-bit floating-point. See the file /home/cm/doc/intro.text for more information.

Campus-wide Supercomputing

The MIT Supercomputing Facility operates a Cray X-MP EA and a VAX-9000. These are available to all members of the Institute, although heavy use starts to cost money. More information here.

Other campus-wide computing

The Athena project makes workstation-level computing available to all students at the institute. More information on Athena and other campus-wide computing resources may be found here.

Lisp Machines

Manuals for these things are all over the place, both as ready reference and for all those awkward occasions where you need an object which is about 8.5'' by 11'' by 3'' (say, to prop up a monitor or block a radiator vent), but none happens to be handy. The documentation is also available on line from the console of any Lisp Machine that still happens to be running, by typing "<Select>D" (that's the "Select" key followed by the "d" key) to get to the Document Examiner. Local Info contains a document on getting started on the lispms, which also includes a useful taxonomy of local world loads.