High Performance Computing

ACRC HPC systems

High Performance Computing

The University's HPC systems can be used to accelerate your computational research. High-performance computing (HPC) is the ability to process data and perform complex calculations at high speeds. Today, HPC is essential for many types of workloads, including AI/ML, physical simulations, and big data analysis.

University of Bristol HPC facilities

The ACRC operates a number of different HPC systems each suited to different workloads. All of our clusters run a linux operating system.

If you are unfamiliar with using linux we offer training courses. You can follow the intro to linux training materials at your own pace.

For an overview of the current HPC systems at the University please watch our new 'Introduction to HPC at University of Bristol' | Microsoft Stream‌.

You can also download the Introduction to HPC at University of Bristol slides (PowerPoint with narration).

BlueCrystal Phase 4

BlueCrystal Phase 4 (BC4) is available to all HPC users at the University of Bristol it is capable of up to 600 trillion calculations per second. BC4 is capable of supporting large parallel jobs and has a number of Nvidia P100 GPUs.

BluePebble

BluePebble is available to researchers across the University of Bristol, it is targeted for high throughput computing, and also has a number of GPUs and accelerators, large memory and other specialised requirements.

BlueCryo

The ACRC team installed and currently maintains the BBSRC funded BlueCryo high-performance computing (HPC) cluster dedicated to image processing for the GW4 Cryo-EM facility which supports pioneering cryo-microsopy research at the University of Bristol.

National HPC Facilities

Isambard 2

Isambard 2 at GW4 is one of the EPSRC Tier-2 HPC facilities. Isambard provides multiple advanced architectures within the same system in order to enable evaluation and comparison across a diverse range of hardware platforms. Free access is available to academic researchers working in the EPSRC domain and from some UK universities; academic users from other domains and institutions can purchase access. Industry access is available. Isambard is an ARM based supercomputer. This is a Tier 2 site funded by EPSRC for the GW4 consortium, and Bristol academics have a share of the available capacity. ISAMBARD is led by Professor Simon Mcintosh-Smith from the University of Bristol. For more information about using Isambard please see the ISAMBARD documentation.

Isambard 2 is due to be decommissioned in 2024.

Isambard AI

Isambard AI is in the process of being installed and configured at the National Composites Centre, near Bristol.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)* will build and deliver the new system with the next generation HPE Cray EX supercomputers and over 5,000 state-of-the-art NVIDIA GH200 superchips. The advanced technologies and design will allow Isambard-AI to reach up to 200 quadrillion calculations per second.

Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of the Isambard National Research Facility at the University of Bristol, said: "Isambard-AI represents a huge leap forward for AI computational power in the UK. Today Isambard-AI would rank within the top 10 fastest supercomputers in the world and, when in operation later in 2024, it will be one of the most powerful AI systems for open science anywhere.

Isambard 3

Isambard 3 is in the process of being installed and configured at the National Composites Centre, near Bristol.

Isambard 3’s significantly upgraded performance will enable new research in a wide range of areas, including in clean energy, modelling optimal configuration of wind farms on both land and water, and modelling fusion reactors to provide green energy in the future. The new collaboration with NVIDIA will also enable Isambard to support cutting-edge research in AI and machine learning. Isambard 3 will support new user communities from AI, life sciences, medical, astrophysics and biotech.

Isambard 3 will utilise the latest novel technologies, including the new Arm®Neoverse™-based NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchip, to provide a production system of at least 55,000 cores. The new system - one of the first in the world based on NVIDIA Grace - will have more than six times the computational performance and six times the energy efficiency of Isambard 2.

JADE (Joint Academic Data science Endeavour)

JADE is one of the EPSRC Tier-2 HPC facilities. The system design exploits the capabilities of NVIDIA's DGX-1 Deep Learning System which has eight of its newest Tesla P100 GPUs tightly coupled by its high-speed NVlink interconnect. The DGX-1 runs optimized versions of many standard machine learning software packages such as Caffe, TensorFlow, Theano and Torch. Free access is available to academic researchers working in the EPSRC domain and from some UK universities; academic users from other domains and institutions can purchase access. Industry access is available.

ARCHER - UK National Supercomputer

The ARCHER National supercomputer is primarily funded by EPSRC and NERC. If you wish to use Archer you will need to apply for resources on the ARCHER system. It is often useful to have performed test runs on BlueCrystal 4 to support your application.

An overview of the UK's National HPC Facilities for research, their capabilities and access criteria can be found on hpc-uk.ac.uk.