This page provides general information about clusters and HPC in particular, as well as some details relevant to prospective users. Current users of HPC should check out our resources for existing users. If you just want to request an account, fill out our account request form – all new users must fill out that form. For inquiries about HPCF or its machines, or to join the financing of this machine, contact our HPCF Point of Contact. If you cannot find what you need, see if the answer to your question is on our frequently asked questions page, contact us or visit us during our in-person support hours.

For general information about what a cluster is and how a cluster is used, see our page for complete beginners. We also have pages that contain a detailed description of our cluster, a description of consulting support options, and our usage policies. If you wish to see what people are doing with our cluster, see our list of projects that use the HPCF or our list of technical reports and preprints. More detailed information about HPC and extensive information on how to use HPC is available on our resource page for current users.

If you need significantly more resources than our cluster can provide, you should consider applying for an account on Teragrid – the NSF terascale computing infrastructure. It consists of over a dozen clusters all over the US, numerous web resources and consulting services. It is described by the Teragrid about page as, "an open scientific discovery infrastructure combining leadership class resources at eleven partner sites to create an integrated, persistent computational resource." See our page about getting access to Teragrid for useful Teragrid-related links, an explanation of the process of obtaining a Teragrid account, and tips about how to write your Teragrid proposal.

• Account Request Form – all new users must fill out this form before getting their account
• What is a Cluster and How do I Use One?
• Hardware, Infrastructure and Support:
  • Detailed Description of HPC – a detailed description of our cluster and how it is set up
  • Consulting Support – individualized consulting options
  • Usage Policies – rules and regulations set by our policy committee
• Information about Existing Users:
  • Projects Using the HPCF
  • Technical Reports and Preprints – cluster benchmarks and papers based on projects that used the cluster
  • Resources for Users of hpc.rs.umbc.edu – detailed information about using the cluster. This page is intended for existing users.
• Getting on Teragrid – if you need significantly more resources than our cluster can provide, you should consider applying for an account on Teragrid – the NSF terascale computing infrastructure.