FSU faculty with dedicated computing and storage needs are invited to buy into the shared-HPC facility during the HPC annual "Call for ownership." This is the fourth such call that we have made in as many years and the fourth year that we are able to match faculty purchases with funds contributed by Information Technology Services and the College of Arts and Sciences.

This year we are offering a more diverse set of hardware options in order to better accommodate the diverse research computing requirements of our faculty and students. The hardware options available for matching will include:

1. Infiniband Connected Cluster Servers and Parallel Storage. This configuration is designed to support distributed memory type jobs using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). This hardware option was the only one available for owner buy-ins during the past three years.
2. Interactive/Remote Visualization Servers. This hardware configuration is designed to facilitate analyses that require interactive access and/or specialized hardware to accelerate visualization of large data sets. In the past, this function was attempted on the HPC log in nodes; however, performing these tasks on log in nodes can jeopardized job submissions and the configuration of log in nodes is not well suited for this purpose. Servers will consist of many-core/large memory machines with high-speed Internet connectivity and support for a GPU appliance, such as the Tesla 1070 or the Quadro Plex 2200 S4 to aid in CUDA-based computations and/or advance visualizations.
3. Secondary Storage. This is designed to be a cost effective storage platform for the interactive/visualization servers, but will also be connected to HPC log in nodes and selected research instrumentation on the FSU campus to facilitate data analysis pipelines and workflows.
4. Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) Servers. Some research problems do not efficiently fit into standard distributed memory hardware environments; therefore, we are offering dedicated access to commodity-based SMP systems, with up to 176 processor cores and 1 TB of memory.
5. Virtual Servers for Web/Database Services. HPC will create dedicated virtual servers to host web and data base services for research groups who require these services to support analysis workflows and research outreach requirements directly related to the research computing elements supported by HPC. The installation of the new hardware will take place in late August, which means that it is still too far in advance for me to give specific details regarding the hardware configuration and pricing for the options described above. In the past three years, however, we have successfully leveraged the visibility of the FSU share-HPC facility and the large volume of our purchases to obtain highly competitive pricing.

To claim a share of this year’s matching funds, Jim Wilgenbusch MUST RECEIVE A LETTER OF INTENT FROM YOU BY 5PM MAY 21, 2010. The letter must contain the exact amount of money that you will invest (minimum $25,000) in HPC and the FSU account number where these funds are available. If funds are not available when the letter of intent is submitted then you must include documentation certifying that the funds will be available to FSU by no later then 9 July, 2010. Send your signed letter of intent to Jim Wilgenbusch by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Contact Jim Wilgenbusch if you have questions or you need a template letter of intent.