Research Computing
Status: Production Test, existing user migration in progress
Contact: Jim Hayes (Technical Inquiries)
Contact: Ron Hawkins (Participation Inquiries)
What Is It?
RCI is launching the Triton Shared Computing Cluster (TSCC), a new computational cluster for research computing. Designed as a turnkey, high performance computing resource, it features flexible usage and business models and professional system administration. Unlike traditional clusters, TSCC is a collaborative system wherein the majority of nodes are purchased and shared by the cluster users, known as condo owners. In addition to the participant-contributed condo nodes, TSCC has a collection of hotel nodes which are available to condo owners and to other researchers on a rental basis. The condo and hotel configurations contain both standard two-socket nodes and GPU nodes. The hotel configuration also features eight 512GB large-memory nodes.
In the condo model, participants purchase one or more computing nodes for the shared cluster and receive an equivalent annual time allocation to run jobs on any combination of the participant's own nodes, nodes contributed by other participants, and hotel nodes. Researchers will also have the hotel option of purchasing time by the hour.
You can read more about hardware, network capabilities, storage, and usage plans in the System Info section.
How Much Does It Cost?
The primary cost to condo participants is the cost of the computing nodes. In addition, owners pay an operations fee on each node to cover user services, support, maintenance and upgrades. These costs are detailed in the chart below.
The cost to UCSD users for running jobs on the hotel nodes is $0.025 per core-hour, with a minimum purchase of $250. Non-UCSD users have a slightly higher but still very competitive rate. See the table below for a cost comparison of computing rates.
| Organization/Node Type | Hotel & PDAF | Condo |
|---|---|---|
| UCSD Users | $0.025/SU | $0.015/SU |
| Other UC Campuses | $0.03/SU | Please inquire* |
| Public | $0.09/SU | Please inquire* |
Non-UCSD organizations should email the Participant Contact for details and specifics regarding cost and availability of TSCC computing resources. We strongly encourage external group participation through competitive rates and high quality service and support.
| Item | Node Purchase | Infrastructure Fee | Annual Ops Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Computing Node | $3,934 | $939 | $495/yr |
| 128 GB Memory | + $575 | + $0 | - |
| InfiniBand | + $0 | + $200 | - |
| GPU Node (GTX 680 w/32 GB Memory) | $6310 | $939 |
$495/yr |
| 64 GB Memory | + $250 | + $0 | - |
| 128 GB Memory | + $750 | + $0 | - |
| Infiniband | + $495 | + $200 | - |
| GTX Titan Upgrade | + $1960 | + $0 | - |
Over the four-year lifecycle of a fully-utilized General Computing Node, the effective cost for UCSD-based condo participants is less than $0.015/core-hour, including Indirect Costs (IDC).
Read more about the TSCC cost for users.
Read more about the TSCC Usage Model.
How Do I Get It?
RCI's TSCC is now fully deployed and in production. Users with existing Triton Resource allocations are being transitioned gradually, and new user accounts are being configured at this time. Condo hardware orders will be fulfilled within approximately 30 days. Hotel users whose allocations have not been transitioned can continue to run on the current Triton system until their TSCC accounts are migrated. Contact Ron Hawkins for inquiries (info above). Discussion and announcements can be found on the TSCC mailing list.
Get a Trial Account on TSCC!
Other UCSD Non-RCI Services
An open campus meeting about the RCI program and Research Computing was held on January 24, 2013 at the Price Center Marshall Room. You can view the presentation slides [PDF] for an overview.
*Ask the Participation Contact about pricing for non-UCSD organizations.
Try It Free
Sign up for a Trial Account Today!
Participant Meeting!
Wednesday, June 26, 1-2 PM, SDSC Auditorium
See Tscc-l Archives for details
Get Help
Contact TSCC User Support
Join the Discussion List
Post to the Discussion List (members only)
Send email to the Participant Contact