The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) Allocations Committee has adopted the following allocation policy for CTC systems.  All project requests should be submitted using our online application form and will be subject to the following:

 

Eligibility
All Cornell University researchers, including postdoctoral associates, are eligible to apply for time on CTC systems. Undergraduate and graduate students cannot be Principal Investigators (PIs); their advisors must serve in this capacity. Projects receiving peer-reviewed allocations must be non-proprietary.  Requests that emphasize parallel computation or that have large memory requirements are strongly encouraged. All requests are reviewed on the basis of scientific merit and computational requirements.

 

Allocation Units
CTC allocates time in wall-clock hours, not CPU hours, because a user has exclusive use of all nodes allocated to their job.  The current Cluster usage rate is defined as follows:

 

                    1 wall-clock hour = 1 node* for 1 hour

 

*  A node may have more than 1 processor

 

                    Usage (Hrs) = num_nodes * wall-clock hours

 

Please note that usage is based on nodes not processors.  Serial nodes have one processor per node.  Parallel nodes have four processors per node.  In our current rate structure, disk and memory use associated with time on our machines is not deducted from a user's allocation. 

 

Review Procedure for Research Allocations
Research requests are reviewed by either the CTC Allocations Committee or the Internal Allocations Committee depending on the size of the request.

 

The CTC Allocations Committee, composed of Cornell faculty, determines awards monthly for all requests greater than 10,000 wall-clock hours.  

 

The Internal Allocations Committee (IAC), composed of CTC staff scientists, meets weekly to consider requests up to 10,000 wall-clock hours. Requests may be submitted at any time.

 

Exploratory allocations, which require no formal review process, provide researchers who have no experience using our computing resources except for education or workshop accounts with a non-renewable six-month allocation of 100 wall-clock hours.

 

The current policy provides time at no dollar cost to Cornell researchers for academic work. However, those who use significant CTC resources are encouraged to request funding in their grant applications for CTC activities. Questions may be sent to allocations@tc.cornell.edu.

 

Researchers with projects that are computationally massive in scope, and whose resource requirements may not be met by CTC machines, are reminded that they have the option to submit their requests to the National Science Foundation's Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure Centers at either NCSA or SDSC.

 

Review of Progress
Research awards are made for a 12-month period.  Renewal requests are evaluated annually thereafter.

 

Acknowledgment
All related publications, conference proceedings, and progress reports that result from research using CTC resources must acknowledge the Cornell Theory Center by including the following:

 

"This research was conducted using the resources of the Cornell Theory Center, which receives funding from Cornell University, New York State, federal agencies, foundations, and corporate partners."

 

If you have questions, please email allocations@tc.cornell.edu.