The PI Computing Allowance (PCA) is a program that provides up to 500K Service Units (SUs) of free compute time per fiscal year to all qualified Berkeley Lab PIs, where one SU is equivalent to one compute cycle on the latest standard hardware CPU partition. The purpose of the PCA program is to outreach to areas of science where the use of computing to accomplish science is relatively new. Groups that already use HPC for their science are also encouraged to apply. Think of a PCA as a Lawrencium 500K SU gift card.
Allowances are prorated based on month of application during the allowance year. PIs can also pool their allowances if their groups are working together; however, this must be specified when the allowance is initially setup or during the annual renewal period. Please note that allowances can be shared but are not transferable. People needing more compute time beyond their allowance should review the options for getting more computing time for a project. Lawrencium cluster project names for these allocations start with a ‘pc_’ prefix; for example pc_projectname.
PIs wanting to obtain access to an PCA for their research can submit a request through the self-service MyLRC user portal. Check out online document of myLRC. Requests for new user accounts, adding and removing users to your PCA project can also be done through the MyLRC user portal.
For security reasons, access to Lawrencium will be through the use of two-factor authentication using Google Authenticator one-time password tokens. This greatly reduces the risk of a security compromise due to stolen user credentials.
As a service provided at no cost to researchers, an PCA does not guarantee access to the full amount of SUs. SUs spent on jobs killed due to unplanned outages cannot be reimbursed.
Renewing Your PI Computing Allowance
Each year, beginning in September, you can submit an application form to renew your PI Computing Allowance through the MyLRC portal. The renewal form is considerably simpler and briefer than the form used to request a first-time Allowance. Links to this renewal application form are typically emailed to Allowance recipients (and to other designated “main contacts” on such accounts) by or before mid-September each year. Renewal applications submitted during September will be processed beginning September 1st. Those submitted and approved later in the year, after the initial review period (i.e. after Sep 30th), will receive pro-rated allowances of computing time, based on month of application during the allowance year.
Acknowledgments
Please acknowledge Lawrencium in your publications. (Such acknowledgments are an important factor in helping to justify ongoing funding for, and expansion of, the cluster.) A sample statement is:
This research used the Lawrencium computational cluster resource provided by the IT Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231)
The Scientific Computing Group (also known as High-Performance Computing Services) under Science IT supports the mission of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by providing technology and consulting support for science and technical programs, in the areas of data management, HPC cluster computing, and Cloud services.