Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-1324
July 8, 2005

Finance Committee
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dear colleagues:

In response to Dr. Lee's request for replacement equipment, I am pleased to submit a request to replace the six (6) workstations in the Visualab, which were purchased in February of 2000 (at the cost of approximately $26,000).

The new workstations, i.e., the requested replacement equipment, is six (6) Sun Blade workstations, with a total cost (6 units) of $15,048 ($16,180 including tax). This equipment is supplied through the SUN Store (http:www.sun.com). The quote that I have obtained online includes a 20% educational discount.

The old workstations are six (6) aging student workstations that currently form the mainstem of the Visualab. Two of these workstations are currently out of commission due to memory failure, and the rest may be expected to go at any time. The model (Sun Ultra 10) was end-of-lifed in 2002 by the manufacturer, and it is no longer supported.

The Visualab is used for web-based teaching and research applications in hydraulic and hydrologic engineering. The lab specializes in dynamic web-content development with PHP, and features thirty-two (32) online scripts (onlinecomp.sdsu.edu, onlinehydro.sdsu.edu, onlinechannel.sdsu.edu, onlinetc.sdsu.edu, rational.sdsu.edu and others) used in instruction of CIV E445 (Applied Hydrology) and CIV E 530 (Open-channel Hydraulics).

Pleased let me know if you have any other questions regarding this request.

Sincerely yours,

Victor M. Ponce
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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