Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is an NSF-funded collection of computing clusters. XSEDE clusters suport all kinds of traditional HPC and non-traditional scientific computing approaches: MPI, OpenMP, GPU, Intel Phi, Hadoop, VMs, containers, etc. For an overview of the available resources see this link.
Researchers at the US universities can apply for several types of allocations on XSEDE.
Research allocation is for heavy production runs. Proposals are considered 4 times per year. If approved, it takes typically about 3-4 months to get an access to the computing facilities. The allocation is given for 1 year with possibility to renew. In the proposal one must demonstrate:
- the value of the proposed science; if the research is already funded, this will not be reviewed again
- competence in the proposed computing approach; in particular, one needs to benchmark the code on XSEDE resources and justify the amount of the requested service units (SUs)
To prepare the proposal, one is encouraged to apply first for StartUp and/or Champion allocations To receive a StartUp allocation, one still needs to submit a small proposal, but such proposals are considered continously during the year and are typically granted with 1-2 weeks. One can also apply for an Educational allocation to be used in class that requires an access to HPC resources.
XSEDE has its representatives on campuses, called XSEDE Campus Champions. A Campus Champion has some allocation on all the XSEDE resources and can share it with local researchers. It typically takes a few days to get some allocation from a Champion.
XSEDE provides extensive resources for HPC training. The resources are available to anybody who applies for an XSEDE account.
- Online tutorials that one can take at any time
- Classes that are available only at certain times
- Workshops hosted at participating institutions
If you have any other questions about XSEDE, please, contact UChicago's XSEDE Campus Champion, Igor Yakushin.