computer science

Open Computing Facility

Open Computing Facility is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Open Computing Facility rather than just read about it. In short: The Open Computing Facility is a student organization at the University of California, Berkeley, and a chartered program of the ASUC. Founded in 1989, the OCF is an all-volunteer, student-run organization dedicated to providing free and accessible computing resources to all members of the University community.

Key takeaways

Open Computing Facility belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Open Computing Facility to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Open Computing Facility from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Open Computing Facility is a student organization at the University of California, Berkeley, and a chartered program of the ASUC. Founded in 1989, the OCF is an all-volunteer, student-run organization dedicated to providing free and accessible computing resources to all members of the University community. The mission of the OCF is "to provide an environment where no member of Berkeley's campus community is denied the computer resources he or she seeks, to appeal to all members of the Berkeley campus community with unmet computing needs, and to provide a place for those interested in computing to fully explore that interest." The OCF provides the following services, among others, to UC Berkeley students, staff, alumni, and affiliates:

A 30-seat computer lab with Linux workstations, 4K monitors, and mechanical keyboards Webhosting for individuals and student groups Linux shell access Email forwarding Free printing quotas for lab users Access to a high-performance computing cluster featuring modern NVIDIA GPUs Software mirrors of popular Linux distributions and open source projects, available over rsync, http, and https A Linux systems administration DeCal To further the OCF's goal of promoting accessibility, the OCF publishes its board meeting minutes, tech talks, and Unix system administration DeCal materials online for all to see and use.

References

External links Open Computing Facility Open Computing Facility Documentation Open Computing Facility Status Blog Open Computing Facility Software Mirrors

Illustrations

The OCF Penguin and logo/mascot since 2012, resembling Tux but sporting a scarf with the UC Berkeley colors of blue and gold.

The logo used by the Open Computing Facility from 2006 until 2012.

The logo used by the Open Computing Facility from 1999 to 2006.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Open Computing Facility

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Open Computing Facility claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Open Computing Facility before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Open Computing Facility ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Open Computing Facility

In research: Open Computing Facility appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Open Computing Facility in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Open Computing Facility is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1989 establishments in California, Computing stubs, University of California, Berkeley, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Open Computing Facility outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Open Computing Facility in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Open Computing Facility means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Open Computing Facility out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Open Computing Facility in simple terms?

Why does Open Computing Facility matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Open Computing Facility?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Open Computing Facility.