Homemade computer go on line

Article Abstract:

Towson State University has developed a unique answer to the high cost of microcomputers. Instead of purchasing pre-built systems, the university maintains a laboratory stocked with name-brand parts and staff members build computers to order. The university estimates it saves over $100,000 a year in purchasing and maintenance costs. The laboratory offers a service contract for $35 a year compared with about $350 that the university would pay to an outside firm. The in-house computer building program began in 1986 after a series of bad experiences with second-rate brand computers. The university has to use competitive bidding for large purchases, so they were unable to buy higher quality machines. Unfortunately, Towson's solution to computer cost would not work well in situations where an institution has already purchased a range of computer systems over years because of the large number of hard to come by parts that would need to be stocked.

Equipment and supplies, Universities and colleges, Cost control, Compatibility (Computers), editorial, Compatible Hardware, Buy or Make Decisions, Cost Reduction, Computer Design, Maintenance Contract, Computer Manufacture, Towson State University

---

Chess riddle solved at last by computer

Article Abstract:

Lewis Stiller, a computer science student at Johns Hopkins University, resolves a centuries-old chess problem, demonstrating that a king, a rook and a bishop can defeat a king and two knights in a maximum of 223 moves. Stiller's analysis, once thought to be too complicated for even the most powerful computers, required one of the most extensive computer searches ever performed. Stiller used a parallel processing computer located at the Los Alamos Laboratory to do his search. Stiller's program reportedly took five hours to run. During that time the Los Alamos computer considered 100 billion chess moves. According an international chess master professor of computer science at Carnegie-Mellon University, Stiller's work is very important. The project has implications for future problem-solving tasks on computers.

Research, Tests, problems and exercises, Johns Hopkins University, Chess, Computer chess, Stiller, Lewis

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: The computer delusion. Schooling the Imagination. The rancher subsidy
• Abstracts: The nurses: the front-line care-givers are burned out. Is it any wonder?
• Abstracts: Deadbeats cost all of us dearly. Deal clears hurdle for satellite TV bill. Senate OKs bankruptcy bill
• Abstracts: While terror fallout deepens, Chretien fiddles. Alliance: a national headache. Liberals can spend and cut taxes, PM says
• Abstracts: The gentle road to success. Write at the top. What's new, pussycat? Everything old is new again

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.