For updated news from the September 24, 2015 Town Hall, please see Town Hall spotlights new services for researchers, Savio expansion.
Berkeley’s high performance computing cluster has become more readily accessible to campus researchers with the announcement of a Faculty Computing Allowance in May 2015, less than one year after the Savio cluster launched. Each faculty member is now eligible to use up to 200,000 fully-subsidized core-hours of computation on that cluster annually. Recipients of this computing allowance can share the core-hours among other campus employees and students who are actively participating in their research, including postdocs, grad students, staff researchers, and others.
Research IT’s Berkeley Research Computing (BRC) program held a Town Hall on May 28, 2015, to explain how to apply for the allowance and to outline the Savio cluster’s technical specifications and available services. Slide decks and videos from the Town Hall are available for review:
- BRC Program Overview (
BRCTownHall2015Pres_Schmitz.pdf): current services, future directions, and campus partnerships. (Presented by Patrick Schmitz, Associate Director of Research IT and BRC Program Manager.) - Savio architecture, specifications, and access ( BRC-Townhall_Kurtzer-Muriki.pdf): options for access to the cluster, including the Faculty Computing Allowance program, condo contributions, and more; and on the facilities and user experience it provides. (Presented by Gregory Kurtzer, HPC Architect and Developer, and Krishna Muriki, HPC User Services Consultant.)
- Presentation videos in which the slide decks linked above are narrated: BRC Program overview (Schmitz), the Savio Cluster’s technical architecture (Kurtzer), and how to obtain access and user support (Muriki).
An information packet on the Faculty Computing Allowance program summarizes cluster support available to faculty, and includes a section identifying how this program and other BRC services can help with faculty recruitment and grant proposals. Those interested in applying for the Faculty Computing Allowance should complete the Survey Requirements form.
The Faculty Computing Allowance program is currently in an Early Adopter phase, during which users are provided with accounts based on readiness and fit on the system. The program will go into full operation later this summer. One or more additional Town Hall meetings expected to be held during Fall 2015 will continue to introduce faculty and other researchers to the Faculty Computing Allocation program and the Savio cluster.