The DeiC National HPC Centre, SDU, hosts state-of-the-art solutions for academic HPC suitable for a wide range of research and technological applications. The ABACUS2.0 supercomputer is currently one of the most power efficient HPC installation in the Nordic countries and offers one of the best pricing options for academic users in Europe, also thanks to the national funding from DeiC. The HPC center is open to all researchers in Denmark, and all academic users can benefit from the available resources under the same conditions. In particular the same price is offered to all academic users, independently of their host institution. This allows all researchers in Denmark to take advantage equally of the DeiC contribution to the national facility at SDU.

The price for academic access to HPC resources is calculated based on the full cost of ownership to operate the facility. In particular it includes:

  • the cost of the HPC hardware and the cost of the common storage system
  • the cost of the infrastructure needed to host the HPC facility at SDU, such as: the server rooms, the cooling system, the required electrical components to connect to the power grid (e.g. transformers), etc;
  • the cost of the electricity for the whole HPC facility (HPC hardware, storage system, cooling system).

The costs for IT-service support are not included in the estimate. Currently, this cost is very low being 1.5 FTE.

The final price for academic users is calculated to be:

  • Slim nodes: 1,50 DKK / node-hour (~ 0,062 DKK / CPU core-hour)
  • Fat nodes: 1,80 DKK / node-hour (~0,075 DKK / CPU core-hour)
  • GPU nodes: 2,10 DKK / node-hour (~0,088 DKK / CPU core-hour)

The rates above are per node per hour in DKK excluding VAT.  All our nodes have 24 CPU cores, i.e., the rates per CPU core, are obtained by dividing node-hours prices by 24. The prices are estimated based on the assumption of an average utilization of 80% of the machine and a life span of the HPC hardware of 4 years. The prices take into account the co-financing from DeiC, which reduces the overall price for all users by about 35%.

Note that the pricing model at the national HPC facility at SDU is such that the costs for the storage are included in the cost of node-hours, i.e. users are not required to pay separately for the use of the storage system.

Non-academic users, such as private companies, can also request access to the DeiC National HPC Centre at SDU. The price for non-academic users does not include the co-funding from DeiC and are aligned with current market prices.

Individual prices are agreed with non-academic users, based on their needs and level of support which they require.

Please write to escience@sdu.dk for a customized quotation.