Home > Research > Computer Laboratory
Original Computer Laboratory Hardware
When the Computer Laboratory opened its doors in July of 1990 several pieces of computer equipment that had been purchased previously by the Institute found a permanent home, and became the cornerstone of the Laboratory's computer facilities:
- GRiD Model 1530 computer: a high-performance '386' laptop computer.
- Hewlett Packard 71B computer: a small, hand-held computer.
- Houston Instruments DMP-52 plotter.
- Kurta IS/3 digitizing tablet.
- Leitz-Sokkisha SET 3 laser theodolite.
The two computers have been used for several seasons in Iraq to collect, store and analyize the material excavated by the Nippur Expedition. The digitizing tablet is used to trace existing paper drawings into the computer, and the plotter is used to produce drawings on paper or mylar from computer drawings or models. The laser theodolite is used for mapping and surveying archaeological sites, and has been used at Nippur the past two seaons yielding tremendous time savings and improved accuracy in field recording.
In the fall of 1990 the Laboratory purchased two high performance, color computer graphics system capable of generating two and three-dimensional site drawings, architectural plans, sections, and renderings, as well as illustrations of artifacts recovered from excavations. These machine are available to all the archaeological projects in the Institute, and are the most sophisticated graphics system in regular use by the Computer Laboratory staff.
- Sun SPARCstation 1+: a multi-user, color graphics workstation.
- Apple Macintosh IIfx: a high-performance color graphics computer.
The Sun workstation is used primarily to construct three-dimensional computer models of archaeological sites. The software used for these models is ARRIS, by Sigma Design, Inc., and several additional ARICAD program modules by Aritek Systems, Inc. The Apple Macintosh IIfx computer is used primarily for satellite image data processing, using the Spyglass family of software from Spyglass, Inc.
In the spring of 1993 the Women's Board of the University of Chicago underwrote the purchase of a Sun SPARCstation LX computer, a high-performance color graphics workstation which has provided a second, even more powerful platform for satellite image data processing and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications for archaeological analyses.
A computer system dedicated to graphics and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning was purchased by the Laboratory in the fall of 1993, consisting of an Apple Macintosh Centris 650 computer, Apple Color OneScanner, and an optical disk drive for mass storage.
A Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 650c color plotter was purchased by the Laboratory in the winter of 1993. Capable of 36"x48" output in up to 256 colors, this plotter will be accessible by all the Laboratory's computer systems and application software in the spring of 1994.
The Laboratory also maintains an Apple Macintosh IIcx computer that serves as a file server on the Institute's Apple LocalTalk and Ethernet networks as well as an Apple SE/30 computer which functions as the operating center for the Institute's QuickMail Electronic Mail system.
Revised: February 7, 2007