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 allocations@ncsa.uiuc.edu for requesting start-up email-application-blanks. Principal investigators (PIs) submitting proposals for review should also submit the abstracts electronically via email to abstract@ncsa.uiuc.edu. 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 radha@ncsa.uiuc.edu Last Modified: June 14, 1996 .