In 1987, the University acquired a DEC VAX 8700 Ultrix (a variant of UNIX) system and connected it to the public network. Additional storage was added in FY 89. A cluster of ten SUN3 diskless workstations and a file server were also installed in the Engineering School. During FY90, the University installed a SPARCserver-490 processor known as "phoenix". The new phoenix complex actually involved phoenix, an older file server upgraded to a SPARCserver-490 and acting as a file server, 25 SPARCstation-SLC workstations, and 5 SPARCstation-1+ color workstations. Since that time, the University has continued to upgrade the UNIX facilities.
| year | know about , used |
Male | Female | AB | BSE |
| 1989 | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| 1990 | 32% , 23% | 39% , 30% | 16% , 6% | 20% , 12% | 81% , 65% |
| 1991 | 38% , 30% | 44% , 35% | 28% , 21% | 25% , 17% | 79% , 71% |
| 1992 | 36% , 31% | 44% , 40% | 22% , 15% | 27% , 18% | 65% , 40% |
| 1993 | 58% , 51% | 66% , 63% | 47% , 35% | 56% , 43% | 67% , 85% |
| 1994 | 77% , 61% | 82% , 64% | 70% , 56% | 71% , 52% | 95% , 92% |
| 1995 | 71% , 71% | 75% , 75% | 69% , 66% | 69% , 67% | 84% , 84% |