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Some Myths about Access to and Charging for the Cambridge High Performance Computer Service (HPCS)

Some Myths about Access to and Charging for the Cambridge High Performance Computer Service (HPCS) . www.hpc.cam.ac.uk. Mike Payne Cavendish Laboratory mcp1@cam.ac.uk. Darwin Dell PowerEdge 1950 2340 cores, 1170 3.0 GHz Intel Woodcrest processors Infinipath (infiniband) throughout cluster

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Some Myths about Access to and Charging for the Cambridge High Performance Computer Service (HPCS)

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  1. Some Myths about Access to and Charging for the Cambridge High Performance Computer Service (HPCS) www.hpc.cam.ac.uk Mike Payne Cavendish Laboratory mcp1@cam.ac.uk

  2. Darwin Dell PowerEdge 1950 2340 cores, 1170 3.0 GHz Intel Woodcrest processors Infinipath (infiniband) throughout cluster ClusterVision software stack (+ HPC add-ons)

  3. Paying for it The new era of ‘Full Economic Costs’ (FEC) demands that all University facilities are ‘sustainable’ which means that they must recover all their costs from users who in turn raise the money needed from research grants. OR – just cop out and put it in with the rest of the University infrastructure (which then becomes but a small component in UK Universities’ roughly 200% overhead rate)

  4. Paying for it The HPCS has (almost uniquely) been set up as a Major Research Facility under FEC and so it is supposed to recover all its costs from research grants.

  5. Paying for it However, due to the efforts of the HPCS Director, Dr. Paul Calleja, the HPCS has been able to attract significant investment from industry. This money will allow access to significant amounts of the computational resource without requiring FEC. These resources which will be targeted towards adventure and innovation in HPC. So the Cambridge HPCS will continue to offer free, rapid access to all users - particularly to new users of the system and/or HPC. This can include access for collaborators in other institutions.

  6. Paying for it BUT Large and established users of HPC will be expected to pay for access and they will be given priority in the queues to deliver the time they have paid for. As new users expand their use of the service they will be expected to apply for funding to pay for time. Note that the process of applying for funding will be perceived positively by the HPCS even if the application is not successful.

  7. Cost Comparisons Charging for the HPCS is based on 'core hours' of use This cost is 7p per core hour This is equivalent to £9 per TFlop hour (Linpack) In comparison the new national HPC service HECToR charges £63.54 per TFlop hour (Linpack)

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