This article is composed of the following sections:
Accounts on instructional systems receive weekly allocations of Computing Units (CUs) based either on the needs estimated by the instructor, or based on the type of account. For classes with moderate computing requirements, students receive 30 units per week. For computer intensive classes the allocation may be considerably more.
If the class is set up on the Open Computing Environment (OCE) model, and the student has a compatible OCE account, the weekly allocation goes to the student's OCE account. An OCE account can receive allocations from several classes. OCE accounts receive a base allocation of 30 CUs per week for "extra-curricular" computing.
The usual "personal account" allocation on sdcc13, sdcc15, sdcc17, and sdcc21 is 15 CUs per week. On sdcc3, graduate student personal accounts receive 20 CUs per week. Honors students receive 30 CUs per week.
Accounting is done in Computing Units for certain resources including connect time, processor time, and line printing. If an account consumes its entire allocation before the end of the week, the account is suspended until Friday morning when it receives its next weekly allocation.
Other resources such as laser printing involve charges of real money. Those rates are also shown below. Connect Time
Rate: 0.1 Computing Unit (CU)/hour
Processor Time (CPU)Rate: 10 CU/hour
In some cases the CPU rate is lower than 10 CU/hour; the logcost command, if available, will report the actual rate. Typically, the CPU rate on workstations is only 1 CU/hour.
Line Printer Output1 CU / 100 pages
Laser Printer Output$0.05/page (effective 09/01/01)
Requires a real-money account.
QMS 860 Laser Printer Output$0.20/page
This printer has TABLOID format (11x17) capability.
Requires a real-money account (see below).
Standard Color OutputStandard Color Output rates apply to most ACMS color printers including the following models:
Tektronix Phaser 550 / 560 / 740 / 780 / 850DP.
HP LaserJet 5M Color
HP DeskJet 1600C/PS
$0.35/page for white paper stock
$1.50/page for transparent stock
Requires a real-money account (see below).
Premium Color OutputPremium Color Output printers have special rates. To use these printers you will need a real-money account (see below) with the "premium" flag enabled.
Phaser 440 Laser Printer Color Output
$3.50/page
DesignJet 800ps Color Plotter Output
Charges vary depending on the paper stock and the amount of pigments consumed.
See the Cplot1 article for additional information about this model.
Here's a list of printers available at ACMS.
The cost of laser printing supplies necessitates charging for laser printing service.
If you have a login username for one of the following types of accounts, you are qualified to obtain a real-money account for laser printing:
In order to use the laser printers you must establish an association between your login username and some "real-money" account (such as a department-funded account, or a special laser account paid for by private check). Contact the Account Services Office 2113 APM, 858-534-4060.
If you are a student, you can check the balance of both your real-money (laser printing) account and your remaining allocation of computing units for the week, along with other information about your account, using the Account Lookup Tool. There, enter your user name and student ID number, and click Submit Query. The first item you will see is your balance of computing units. Information about your real-money account will be displayed below your list of allocations and quotas. There you can find your balance, account status, who is authorized to use the account, and a list of restricted printers you can access, if any.
On ACMS Unix systems the command:
% balance
reports the remaining balance since the last accounting period for the current account. If the account is connected to a recharge (real-money) account, the balance and status of the recharge account is also reported, and the type of limited-access printers that the account may use, if any.
The logcost command estimates charges for certain resources: connect time and CPU usage. In most cases the estimate will be a good indication of how much has been spent during the current login session. Some expenses, like printing, are not included. (Printing is billed separately to a real-money account that you open up with ACMS.)
Strictly speaking, logcost reports charges for resources used by the current shell and all of its (completed) child processes. Resources not included in the estimate are those used in other sessions and processes of the current shell which have not yet completed.
Logcost is implemented as a C-shell alias. This alias is provided as part of the standard account setup. If you try to run logcost and get "Command not found" you should see about having your .cshrc file repaired (use /public/cshrc as a model).