Dear Researcher,

As we have previously announced, we will be retiring the IBM SP
system at the end of [September 2003]. At 5:00 PM [September 29] all of
the SP batch queues will be shut off, as well as interactive
logins to Hal.bu.edu, the SP's interactive node. Once the SP
is shutdown the name Hal will become an alias for Twister, the
remaining p655/p690 interactive node.

Any data left on the SP scratch disks will be relocated to
another scratch disk and we will notify the owners indivdiually.
Other than the scratch files, no other user files are endangered.

Also as previously announced we will be "revaluing" our unit of
charge, the SU (System Unit), to be more in line with our current
computational capabilities. On October 1, we will set our charges
to be one SU for each hour of p690 processor time, and offer the
reduced rate of 0.85 SUs for each processor hour on the slightly
slower p655 processors. Simulateously, we will reset all project
allocations and balances to reflect the new rates.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact
me by email (glenn@bu.edu) or phone (617-353-1319). As always, Kadin
Tseng (kadin@bu.edu) or Doug Sondak (sondak@bu.edu) can assist with
any questions regarding programming, software packages or other
issues related to the use of the facilities.

Sincerely,

Glenn Bresnahan