Tools & Services
Browse tools, software and programs that have been vetted by our security and compliance team and are supported by our service desk.
High Performance Computing (HPC)
Category: Computer and Device Support High Performance Computing Productivity and Business Audience: Faculty Researchers Staff Students
ISS and the School of Medicine (SOM) are partnering with CU Boulder Research Computing (CURC) to provide compute resources for researchers on the CU Anschutz campus.
Request Access
Welcome to HPC
This collaboration facilitates multidisciplinary discoveries and support for the university community to help advance research productivity and conduct world-renowned research. Progress in our campus' mission and vision in the area of research depends on a stronger data infrastructure including the analysis and interpretation of large and complex data resources. The Alpine HPC is a supercomputing cluster housed in Boulder and is centrally funded by the Chancellor for CU Anschutz faculty, researchers, staff and students. Watch the two-minute highlight of the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The CU Boulder Research Computing (CURC) team has an established computational infrastructure and is already supporting the Alpine research compute environment. This comprehensive supercomputing environment is for large dataset processing and analysis and is equipped with:
- More than 18,000 cores (free of charge, except for the PetaLibrary)
- 382 compute nodes
- Access to AMD GPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, and high memory nodes
For researchers that need additional compute resources, a buy-in opportunity for more dedicated resources will be made available. In addition, research data storage services are available from the CURC PetaLibrary. Information about PetaLibrary costs and additional options for backing up data can be found at The PetaLibrary webpage on the CU Boulder Research Computing website.
* Please note:
- Alpine is not a HIPAA compliant system and no highly confidential data should be analyzed or stored on Alpine. For additional information about classifying sensitive university data, visit the CU Office of Information Security's Data Classification webpage.
- Additional information regarding research data security with Alpine HPC is available on the Research Data Security Compliance webpage. Single sign-on (SSO) is required when accessing this page.
System Access
Complete the following steps to start the process for access to the new HPC system:
- Request access to Alpine by completing the End User Agreement (EUA).
- Once the process to onboard users to Alpine begins, an email will be sent to you confirming that access to the HPC system has been approved.
- Training will be conducted by the research compute group in Boulder via Zoom. Onboarding classes are offered monthly and sign up information for the training sessions will be available in the confirmation email.
Training Resources
Getting Started
Our partnership leverages the expertise of the CU Boulder Research Computing team to deliver a robust HPC environment including support and training. Visit the CU Boulder OIT Research Computing webpage to learn more about additional resources and documentation. The CURC has extensive how-to instructions and help documents including:
- Research Computing User Guide
- Alpine Document Overview
- Alpine Quick Start
- CURC Frequently Asked Questions
- CURC Cheat Sheet
CU Anschutz HPC Learning Opportunities
- Office Hours
Office hours to discuss high performance computing topics are held by the CU Anschutz HPC Bioinformatics Technical Analyst from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. every Monday. Join the virtual meeting via Zoom and email hpcsupport@cuanschutz.edu with topic questions.
- AI/Machine Learning Education Series for Spring Semester, 2024
- Replays of the NVIDIA and Mark III Systems AI/Machine Learning Education Series for CU Anschutz is available by visiting: https://trending.markiiisys.com/cu-anschutz-ai-2024.
- GitHub Site
The CU Anschutz HPC GitHub site addresses the technical components of Alpine. The site provides a repository of CU Anschutz HPC content and Alpine related topics.
- Microsoft Teams Site
CU Anschutz offers an Alpine HPC Active Users Microsoft Teams site to share HPC resources, successes, and provide peer-to-peer help. Request to join the Teams site.
Need additional assistance?
Additional resources also are available at the Rocky Mountain Advanced Computing Consortium (RMACC) community portal to learn about frequently asked research computing questions and shared best practices with other HPC Users.
For general questions about the availability of the HPC Alpine system or additional information about high performance computing, contact the CU Anschutz High Performance Computing (HPC) team at hpcsupport@cuanschutz.edu.
H2 here, starting a main section.
Main sections in this template are separated by 10px, colored padding widgets. Integer ut facilisis felis. Integer porta felis odio. Sed venenatis nibh ex, faucibus facilisis nisl euismod vel. Sed blandit aliquam nibh rhoncus malesuada.
Sed venenatis nibh ex, faucibus facilisis nisl euismod vel. Sed blandit aliquam nibh rhoncus malesuada
Sed venenatis nibh ex, faucibus facilisis nisl euismod vel. Sed blandit aliquam nibh rhoncus malesuada.
Sed venenatis nibh ex, faucibus facilisis nisl euismod vel. Sed blandit aliquam nibh rhoncus malesuada
[tab 2 content - click edit to update]
Another H2 here, starting a new main section.
Let's do four columns this time. Main sections in this template are separated by 10px, colored padding widgets. Individual line items are separated by 1px padding widgets. Integer ut facilisis felis. Integer porta felis odio. Sed venenatis nibh ex, faucibus facilisis nisl euismod vel. Sed blandit aliquam nibh rhoncus malesuada.
Go ahead and click this
This is just an H3 to start a subsection.
Donec aliquet pulvinar felis, sit amet tempor orci lobortis eu. Duis sit amet metus efficitur, ornare risus nec, iaculis nunc. Suspendisse ut vehicula quam, vitae vehicula nisi.
Let's get something started here
- List item one is a good one.
- List item two can be even better than the first.
- Definitely don't click on list item three.
- Or maybe you should.