High Performance Computing

Service Overview
Eligibility & Costs
Support, How-To’s & Info
Internal

The University of Arizona offers free high performance computing resources in the Research Data Center, a state-of-the-art facility that hosts large computer clusters. Scientific research relies upon such systems to analyze massive amounts of collected data.

Free: Time on these systems is available at no charge to any faculty, researcher, or student who has a use for HPC/HTC systems.
Buy-In: Researchers may also buy in to these systems to receive high-priority access. Contact hpc-consult@list.arizona.edu for more information.
Colocation: Researchers may also have their own servers housed in a secured, monitored environment. See Research Computing Colocation.

Computer System Types

CPU/GPU/Phi Hybrid - The Research Data Center's GPU Hybrid system ("El Gato") runs multiple calculations simultaneously, processes complex computations at an accelerated rate, and delivers highly detailed results. Visit elgato.arizona.edu for more information on using this system.
Configurable System - The Research Data Center features a configurable system ("Ocelote"). It is capable of running High Throughput, Shared Memory, and Distributed Memory workloads on the same hardware.

High Throughput Computing systems run multiple independent instances of software over multiple processors at the same time.
Shared Memory refers to a a computer system in which a single process can address a large block of RAM.
Distributed Memory refers to a multi-node computer system in which independent computers share memory over a high speed network.

Request the Service:

You must have an HPC account to use the Research Data Center services. Log in at https://account.arizona.edu, go to Manage your Accounts, and choose High Performance Computing.

HPC Software Install Request
Request software to be installed on the HPC systems in the UA Research Data Center

Eligibility:

UA students, faculty, or staff with research computing needs are eligible to use all of the systems in the Research Data Center.
The systems are research resources intended for testing and running large programs, parallel-processing code, visualizations, and scientific applications. These systems are limited to research applications as defined in Section B-14 of Statute 42-5061 by the Arizona Legislature. Users are expected to utilize these resources accordingly and to use the U-System or other computing systems for non-research purposes.
- A portion of high-performance computing resources is available to departments not classified as "research" by the statute. Please contact hpc-consult@list.arizona.edu with questions.

Service Charge:

No Charge

Service Charge Cost:

Time is available on the RDC systems free of charge for all UA researchers, faculty, students, and staff.

Contact the HPC infrastructure team for information on buy-in.