Research groups within the Department also have extensive computing resources of their own and individual access to these may also be possible when students are doing project work. The teaching laboratories The Department s teaching laboratories currently have 230 PC workstations. The PCs are configured to run both Microsoft s Windows NT 4.0 and RedHat Linux 6.1 operating systems. The Department has a rolling upgrade programme to keep up with the fast pace of change in computer hardware. The workstations are currently supported by a Compaq Proliant 1600R fileserver with 172GB disk space and two dual processor 512MB computer servers.
Laser printing is freely available to students.
Other facilities include text and graphics scanning and co-writing. Some of the software used for teaching is licensed for students to use on their own home PCs. All workstations in the laboratories have access to the internet through the Department s Gigabit Ethernet network infrastructure. All students have personal internet email accounts. The use of email and the World Wide Web is central to life in the Department.