Skip to content

• University of Cambridge  »  Department of Physics  »  CTA  » 

Physics PWF (Personal Workstation Facility) - Managed Cluster Service

Contact: pwf-admin@phy.

Introduction

The PWF is part of the University Computing Service Managed Cluster Service. The Cavendish Laboratory has a room dedicated to PWF machines that is situated on the ground floor at the North East end of the Bragg Building (next to the 1A Class and opposite the 1B Class).

The Physics PWF is managed by:

• Responsible Technical Officer - Richard King (rjk45), who administers the day-to-day running and booking within the PWF (Rm 170)
• Responsible Computing Officer - Cormac O'Connell (cjo24) & Richard Ordish (rgo22) (Rm 208a)

All questions, comments, booking queries and requests for help to: pwf-admin@phy.

The software installed on the PWF machines is:

• standard set of Windows/Linux PWF software
• specific to the Physics PWF: Origin, NAGWare f95 (version 5.0), NAG Fortran Library (Mark 21) and NAG C Library (Mark 8)

Booking of the Physics PWF

The Physics PWF can be booked for other purposes (Academic Visitors, Conferences, Open days, Summer Schools and course).

Please contact us to make a booking: pwf-admin@phy.

Current PWF Bookings can be viewed on the Meeting Room Booking System

PWF Booking and Mangement Information (restricted access)

Please note that bookings of the PWF are normally from 09:00 to 17:00. Use outside these hours will have to be arranged in advance. Incurred staff overtime will have to be re-imbursed by the event organiser.

• If you book the PWF for use as part of a conference, course or seminar, it is your responsibility to make sure that it works as you expect.
• If you require guest accounts to be activated you must let us know at least 1 week in advance. Requests put in 1 day in advance will not be given priority over other work.
• If your booking does not appear on the meeting booking system, there is a high possibility that it hasn't been booked. You must e-mail pwf-admin@phy. in order to place your booking. Bookings will be accepted on a first come first serve basis.

General Availability (Opening Hours)

During term the PWF room will stay open until 6:00pm.
Out of term, or at other times the PWF room will shut at 4:30pm (Mon - Thurs) and at 4:00pm on Fridays.
The PWF room opens at 8:30am Mon - Fri.

Typically if a booking is registered it will unavailable for non-booking related users. Please check with technicians if you wish to use the facility during these times.

Generally the primary use of the Physics PWF is for teaching which will take priority.

Communication

Users of the Physics PWF and Physics remote access will be added to an e-mail list to facilitate smoother communication and allow the managers to inform you of problems.
These lists are:

• physics-pwf-users : All users of the Physics PWF
  
• physics-pwf-remotelinux-users : All users of the remote Linux service
  

If you are not in these groups you can request memebership through the UCS Mailing List Service

Remote Access

A dedicated LINUX server is part of the UCS Managed Cluster service.
It is accessible as
linux.phy.pwf.cam.ac.uk

e.g.
ssh CRSID@linux.phy.pwf.cam.ac.uk

You can also remotely access the main PWF linux server

Rules and Regulations

The Physics PWF usage guidelines and help

Hardware in the Physics PWF:

The current hardware in the Physics PWF was purchased in September 2005. They are Dell GX 620 workstations purchased under the Higher National Agreement.
Each machine has (amongst other things) 4 USB ports, a DVD burner, 2Gb RAM and a 17" flat screen.
They are also alarmed.