NCSA Allocations Overview
Dear Colleague:
***************
On the NCSA ftp server is an National Science Foundation (NSF)
form to apply for computing resources on the NCSA systems.
At present NCSA operates and maintains the following production supercomputers:
o Connection Machine Model 5 (CM-5), with 512 nodes,
16 Gbytes of memory and 130 Gbytes of Scalable Disk Array
o CONVEX Exemplar with 64 processors and
8 Gbyes of shared memory and 120 Gbytes of disk.
o SGI Power Challenge with 88 processors,
24 Gbytes of memory and 90 Gbytes of disk, with a
o 12 processor Challenge front-end system with 1 Gbyte of memory
and 82 Gbyte disk.
All requests for time on a NCSA system should be sent directly to the
Metacomputer Allocations Department at NCSA. Please send six complete
printed copies of the application and supporting materials. Please read the
file "ProposalPrepInfo" with instructions carefully before returning the
application in order to avoid any delays in having your application processed
and reviewed. Applications may include requests for allocation
on multiple systems.
The NSF Metacenter, comprises the four NSF funded supercomputer centers
(Cornell Theory Center (CTC), National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA), Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), and San
Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC)). The Metacenter Allocations
Committee (MAC) considers requests for large computational resources, on multiple
platforms across multiple centers. Proposals are reviewed by a joint panel
drawn from the review boards of the four NSF centers. The MAC provides
allocations across all NSF supercomputing centers, and meets annually.
The 1996 MAC was coordinated by NCSA and information on MAC
proposals and awards for 1996 is available on the WWW at URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/MAC
The joint NCSA /PSC Peer Review Board (PRB) meets quarterly in March,
June, September and December. Proposals and all supporting materials
should be received at NCSA no later than the first of the month prior to the
meeting month to allow time for the review process (e.g. received by
November 1 - reviewed in December; received February 1 - reviewed in March
and so on).
The Small Allocation Committee (SAC) meets in January, February, April,
May, July, August, October and November. Requests received the first of the
month will be reviewed at the next month's meeting (e.g. received by
December 1 - reviewed in January; received by January 1 - reviewed in
February and so on).
The following limits on the service units on different systems will determine
the review committee to which a proposal is submitted:
Machine SAC PRB MAC
CM-5 < 400 400-2000 > 2000
Power Challenge 1000-4000 >4000-40,000 > 40,000
Exemplar 1000-4000 >4000-40,000 > 40,000
Researchers are encouraged to combine their requests on multiple projects
and submit a single proposal.
Start-up allocations of upto 1000 SUs on the SGI Power Challenge and the Convex
Exemplar that are valid for a period of three months may be obtained by
submitting a short email-application. Please send email to
[email protected] for requesting start-up email-application-blanks.
Principal investigators (PIs) submitting proposals for review should also
submit the abstracts electronically via email to
[email protected].
Please include your name and the month for which the proposal is submitted
on the subject line on the email.
Supercomputer resources are allocated for a one-year period. Requests will
be considered based on availability of cycles. If the system you request is
fully allocated, or if the Peer Review Board determines that your application
may be more appropriate on another architecture, NCSA may ask that you
move your request to another system if memory and software availability
permit.
Sincerely,
Radha Nandkumar, Ph. D.
Research Scientist
Metacomputer Allocations
Phone: 217-244-0650
[email protected]
Last Modified: June 14, 1996
