In addition to the general computing labs available to all students, mathematics students may obtain access to high performance Unix-based computing through the Department of Mathematics.

Sphere (sphere.math.utsa.edu, math.utsa.edu, www.math.utsa.edu and sphere.utsa.edu), the main server for the Department, is a Sun Microsystems Ultra 80 quad processor server running the Solaris operating system. Besides the usual Unix tools, Sphere hosts a variety of mathematical software packages, such as Maple, Mathematica, Maxima, Yacas, Scilab, Octave, GAP, pari-gp, DStool.

Sun Ray client machines with direct access to Sphere are located on the 1604 campus in the Mathematics Tutoring Lab (SB 2.01.02). Sphere can also be accessed from any network computer via SSH. The X11 server/client mechanism is supported for a graphical interface. Sphere also accepts remote CDE desktop logins (dtlogin) from other UTSA Unix machines.

To apply for an account on Sphere, fill out the application form, have it co-signed by a faculty sponsor and ask your faculty sponsor to forward the form to the system administrator for processing.