HP Donates Workstations, Server to New Computer Science Building

HP, a long-time supporter of Colorado State University, has donated performance workstations, displays and a server to the new Computer Science building on campus.

"Before the HP donation we used a hodge-podge of machines. Now our students are working on the same powerful workstations used by the best of the best professionals in the most computer demanding professions," said Darrell Whitley, chairman of the Computer Sciences Department.

HP Workstations are tapped by the world’s most demanding power users in industries such as graphic arts, broadcast, computer-aided design, engineering, finance and oil and gas exploration. Companies use HP Workstations to design everything from running shoes to race cars, animated characters to deep-sea submersibles, and to manage everything from billions of dollars of tradable securities to mission-critical IT environments.

The Computer Science building houses three different labs for students – the Student Personal Computer Lab, Teaching Lab and Linux Lab. The Linux Lab is the beneficiary of the generous donation from HP.  The lab is outfitted with HP xw6600 Workstation computers, each with 8 3.0 GHz processors, 8 GB memory, 15K rpm SAS disk drives and 24 inch LCD display. The Linux Lab is used by a combination of Computer Science majors and Applied Computing Technology majors, as well as a wide range of science and engineering majors across campus that require students to take introductory programming classes in computer science.

"This lab is highly visible and provides an extremely well-equipped computing environment," said Whitley. "Our students can’t wait to test the limits of their creativity, and with these powerful new HP tools, the sky is the limit."

HP has also donated an HP Integrity rx8620 server with 16 1.6 GHz Itanium Processors and 16 GB memory. This server will be used for research and teaching in parallel computing.

"Parallel Computing is a traditional area of strength for the Computer Science Department and is becoming an increasingly important area of education and research in computing science in general," said Whitley.

HP has been among Colorado State’s most generous corporate donors, giving more than $20 million in equipment gifts and scholarships to the university over the past 20 years.

The new Computer Science building sits at the crossroads of the Colorado State University Plaza across from the Lory Student Center and Morgan Library. The Department of Computer Science took over occupancy of the four-story, 45,000 square foot building earlier this year.

Demonstrating HP’s environmental leadership, all HP Workstations are registered as Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool Gold products, the highest rating available. All HP workstations are more than 90 percent recyclable by weight and incorporate a tool-less chassis design for quick and easy upgrades by hand. Each workstation includes an 85 percent efficient power supply, which is substantially more efficient than a standard power supply, reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste heat released into the environment.

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