9450841 Landau The project substantially enhances the computer lab component of the Computational Physics class developed and taught for six years. Specifically, the number of X-terminals and the number of CPU's are increased. The three-fourfold increase in power and access permits the inclusion of computational tools into the general physics curriculum -- in parallel with the Computational Physics class-- and eliminates bottlenecks when the entire class works on numerically-intensive projects. All the high performance workstations in the physics department are being connected with the two new ones, and then the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) software will run on all machines. This will create a powerful, distributed memory parallel computer which gives students needed experience in message passing and synchronization primitives. The additional facility has also permitted the extension of the Computational Physics course to an extra term, and thus continue the development of projects which can be used throughout the physics curriculum. Finally, the equipment strengthens and broadens the Physics Department's computing resources as a means to assist in the development of an interdisciplinary Computational Science program.
