This Engineering Research Equipment Grant will be used to upgrade the MicroVAX II system of the Department of Electrical Engineering to serve both as a computational resource and as a local area network server for PC's, terminals, and new graphics workstations. This will provide the Department with an efficient link to a Cyber 205 supercomputer on campus which can be used effectively by faculty and students to extend their ability to perform research at a more advanced level. The goal is to pursue numerical procedures and techniques for the solution of 3- dimensional electromagnetics problems involving objects of both arbitrary shape and arbitrary material composition. Such problems generally require 1) extensive volumetric geometric input data, which can only be practically generated and checked using graphics techniques in many cases, 2) massive computational resources for the numerical solution, and 3) extensive graphics output capability to represent results in a manner convenient for interpretation, evaluation, and presentation. Without the proposed graphic workstation capability, this type of advanced electromagnetics research cannot be easily pursued at the University. Efficient access to appropriate computational resources is also necessary.
