Alpha Centauri

The Alpha Centauri HPC cluster with a total of 272 powerful GPUs is available for ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig researchers. The cluster consists of 34 nodes, each equipped with

• 8 Nvidia A100 GPUs,
• 2 AMD Epyc 7352 processors,
• 1 TB RAM and
• 3.5 TB local NVMe storage.

Machine Learning frameworks, such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, are already installed on the system. The cluster is operated by the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at TUD Dresden University of Technology.

Access to the Alpha Centauri HPC Cluster

For ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig members, access to the system and resources is granted in a straightforward process. A simplified HPC project application is required, which includes essentially a brief description of the planned research to justify the resource need and the required amount of hardware resources, including storage. In contrast to standard HPC projects at ZIH, a detailed project description is not required for ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig projects. For application, please use the HPC Project Application Portal.

After logging in to the portal, choose New Project Application and then select SCADS Project. Once your HPC project is approved, users assigned to it can access the cluster via SSH or JupyterHub. Users that do not have a ZIH login yet should ask the TUD Dresden University of Technology service desk for a ZIH login.

More Information about the HPC Cluster

• About the Alpha Centauri HPC cluster
• HPC documentation of ZIH including the Introduction to HPC at ZIH (slides)
• About HPC at ZIH
• In case of questions, please contact the HPC support