gitea-pages/docs/cscs-userlab/index.md

PSI HPC@CSCS

PSI has a long standing collaboration with CSCS for offering high end HPC resources to PSI projects. PSI had co-invested in CSCS' initial Cray XT3 supercomputer Horizon in 2005 and we continue to procure a share on the CSCS flagship systems.

The share is intended for projects that by their nature cannot profit from applying for regular CSCS user lab allocation schemes..

We can also help PSI groups to procure additional resources based on the PSI conditions - please contact us in such a case.

Yearly survey for requesting a project on the PSI share

At the end of each year we prepare a survey process and notify all subscribed users of the specialized PSI HPC@CSCS mailing list (see below) and the merlin cluster lists, to enter their next year resource requests. Projects receive resources in the form of allocations over the four quarters of the following year.

The projects requests get reviewed and requests may get adapted to fit into the available capacity.

The survey is done through ServiceNow, please navigate to Home > Service Catalog > Research Computing > Apply for computing resources at CSCS and submit the form.

Applications will be reviewed and the final resource allocations, in case of oversubscription, will be arbitrated by a panel within CSD.

Instructions for filling out the 2026 survey

• We have a budget of 100 kCHF for 2026, which translates to 435'000 multicore node hours or 35'600 node hours on the GPU Grace Hopper nodes. The minimum allocation is 10'000 node hours for multicore projects, an average project allocation would amount to 30'000 node hours
• You need to specify the total resource request for your project in node hours, and how you would like to split the resources over the 4 quarters. For the allocations per quarter year, please enter the number in percent (e.g. 25%, 25%, 25%, 25%). If you indicate nothing, a 25% per quarter will be assumed.
• We currently have a total of 65 TB of storage for all projects. Additional storage can be obtained, but large storage assignments are not in scope for these projects.

CSCS Systems reference information

For 2025 we can offer access to CSCS Alps Eiger (CPU multicore) and Daint (GPU) systems.

• CSCS User Portal
• Documentation
  • CSCS Eiger CPU multicore cluster
  • CSCS Daint GPU cluster

Contact information

• PSI Contacts:
  • Mailing list contact: psi-hpc-at-cscs-admin@lists.psi.ch
    • Marc Caubet Serrabou marc.caubet@psi.ch
    • Derek Feichtinger derek.feichtinger@psi.ch
  • Mailing list for receiving user notifications and survey information: psi-hpc-at-cscs@lists.psi.ch (subscribe)