
8 Cray T3E User’s Guide
1.2 Usage policy
As the Cray T3E is a high-performance computational resource, CSC
enforces a usage policy in order to guarantee an efficient and fair usage
of the computer.
When applying for access to the Cray T3E you are supposed to have a
user id also on some other computer at CSC. A T3E resource application
form can be requested by contacting Ms. Paula Mäki-Välkkilä at CSC, tel.
The project application form is handled by the CSC T3E contact person
at CSC, who will contact the applicant if necessary. You are first granted
an initial quota of 100 hours, which gives you a possibility to test and
tune your code using 16 processors at maximum.
Within the limits of the initial quota, you have three months to demon-
strate that your code scales up. The results of the scaling tests should be
sent to CSC by the end of this time. Currently a typical requirement is to
attain at least a speedup of 1.5 when doubling the number of processors
allocated. The eventual quota and the maximum number of processors
for production runs will be granted by CSC’s Scientific Director when
the results of the scaling tests are available.
To get a production quota, you are requested to explain how you have
parallelized the program code. The aim of this procedure is to ensure
that you have understood the specific features of the T3E system and
that the code is parallelized efficiently.
The T3E system is intended only for parallel jobs. Single processor
production runs are not allowed. The computer can be used both for
interactive program development (testing and debugging) and for pro-
duction runs. However, there is a limit of 16 processors for interactive
use. If you want to use more processors, you have to use the batch job
facilities.
When running a batch job, a set of processors will be dedicated for your
job. If some of the processors become idle during the run, no other user
is allowed to use them until the whole run is finished.
Your quota will be charged according to the number of processors that
are assigned to the job multiplied by the elapsed wall clock time. For
example, if you run a job on 32 processors for three hours, 96 hours will
be deducted from your quota.
The usage policy and especially the configuration for batch jobs is likely
to change in time. Current configuration and batch job limits are given
in Chapter 8 (page 81).
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