HPC at Tulane University

The Tulane University High Performance Computing system, code named “Cypress,” is one of the fastest computers in the world. In November 2014, the TOP500 ranked Cypress as the 271st supercomputer site in the world. It is the 3rd fastest among private American universities and 10th fastest among across all American universities.

Alternative to Cypress

Please consider that your intended computational workload may be better suited for running elsewhere than on Cypress due to either of the following.

1. Your workload may not require the highly parallel capabilities of Cypress,
2. Your workload may require longer run times and/or a greater degree of your interaction directly with one or more compute nodes than that available on Cypress via SLURM. (See ​ SLURM.)

If either of the above apply to your intended computational workload, then consider the following alternative.

Virtual Digital Infrastructure (VDI) Workstation

You can request a virtual workstation with specific software, memory, and/or processing power. You can submit a request for VDI by visiting Tulane Service Now at:

​https://tulane.service-now.com/

After logging in to Tulane Service Now with your Tulane credentials, perform the following.

1. From the Tulane IT Portal, select "Request Something".
2. In the left side panel select "Infrastructure and Servers".
3. In the main panel under Infrastructure and Servers, select "Virtual Desktop Request".
4. Fill out the resulting form.
5. Click on Order Now at the top right.

Cypress

Cypress is located in the Tulane datacenter in Downtown New Orleans. It is composed of Dell state-of-the-art technology, using Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor, and Lustre file system running on Dell storage with Intel Enterprise Edition for Lustre (IEEL). The components of Cypress were carefully selected to provide consistent performance over a wide range of scientific applications. Cypress delivers a peak general capability of 369Teraflops and incorporates 11.84TB of fast main memory with 1.476 Petabyte of parallel-distributed file system Lustre high-performance storage, 480TB of which is dedicated to Hadoop with IEEL high performance storage for use by the Hadoop data analytics queue.

Follow the link below for more information on Cypress including it's hardware, how to obtain an account, and how to use Cypress.

• Information on how to use Cypress

Cypress Ranking as of November 2014

Fastest Among Private American Universities

1. 53 Conte – Purdue
2. 94 HPCC – USC
3. 271 Cypress - Tulane

Fastest Across All American Universities

1. 53 Conte – Purdue University
2. 59 BlueGene/Q - Rensselaer University
3. 84 Big Red 2 - Indiana University
4. 88 SuperMic - Louisiana State University (LSU)
5. 89 Palmetto - Clemson University
6. 94 HPCC - University of Southern California (USC)
7. 153 Ada – University of Texas A&M
8. 162 Keeneland - Georgia Tech University
9. 222 Shadow - Missisippi State University
10. 271 Cypress - Tulane University

Tulane High Performance Computing Workshops

• ​ Intro to HPC workshop 2019