What is UTRC?
The University of Texas Research Cyberinfrastructure Initiative (UTRC) is a strategic plan to build and leverage comprehensive, integrated infrastructure to create an environment that promotes innovation and scientific discovery. The UT System and its 15 institutions are working together to deploy, operate, and support the UTRC Initiative with competitive advantages and leadership capabilities that surpass those of our peer institutions. UTRC presents superior, comprehensive scientific capabilities that provide research advantages to:
- enable breakthrough results and impact science,
- attract superior faculty and students, and
- attract funding to UT System institutions.
What are the components?
There are three components to UTRC:
- Advanced Computing offered through Lonestar, located at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)
- High Bandwidth Network Connectivity offered through UTSysNet at 10 Gpbs among all institutions
- Large Data Storage offered through the UT Data Repository (UTDR)
Whether one needs advanced computing, high bandwidth connectivity, large data storage, or any combination of these components, UTRC promotes and facilitates the use of resources by faculty and research teams to expand the scope of research, enable collaborations across institutions, and increase competitiveness for funding.
When will UTRC be ready to support my research?
The Lonestar system is available now for computational research. UT SysNet access at 10Gbps connectivity is being deployed at campuses now, with many connected in 2011 and the rest in 2012. UTDR is being designed now with inputs from all of the institutions, with the first phase of deployment expected by October 2011.
UTRC Network Deployment Schedule (excel file - last updated 7/5/2012)
Research Network Program Map
What is Lonestar?
Lonestar is a fully integrated advanced computing system on which UT System researchers can compute, store, analyze, generate, process, and visualize large amounts of data simply all in one place with a single user account. As part of UTRC, UT System researchers have unique access to allocations on Lonestar which integrates:
- Over 300 teraflops peak performance for parallel computing applications
- Large shared memory nodes with over 1 TB memory
- GPU nodes for remote visualization and accelerated computing
- Software tools and policies to enable high throughput computing
How do I gain access to Lonestar and TACC?
Getting an account (defining a project, and requesting an allocation) is easy for UT System institution researchers. The lead researcher for a project should connect to the TACC User Portal to request a project allocation; colleagues (collaborators, students, etc.) can also request accounts and use these project allocations. Please see Requesting a Project/Allocation for detailed instructions.
What types of research are supported?
UTRC supports cutting-edge research in nearly every field of science from molecular and cellular bioscience, analytical chemistry, and theoretical physics to business modeling, computational mathematics, and climate modeling.
To learn more about computational research performed on TACC's resources, explore these feature articles.
How do I get training and support?
TACC offers various training classes on the programming principles and techniques in high performance computing (HPC), scientific visualization (SciVis), distributed and grid computing, and computational cluster management, as well as how to use TACC's high-end systems most effectively. Much of the content in TACC training classes is aimed at users of TACC resources as well as their own local systems (e.g. clusters and graphics workstations/PCs).
TACC training classes are free to the UT System research community. Visit the training class schedule for more information.
Consulting and support services for TACC systems are also available.
Which software packages are supported on Lonestar?
The Texas Advanced Computing Center maintains a collection of program libraries and software packages to support high performance computing activities across diverse disciplines. Software products for the supercomputing environment are selected on the basis of quality, history of performance, system compatibility, and benefit to the scientific community. Let TACC know if you need a particular software package for your work.
Visit TACC Software to see a list of software modules for download, and those developed by TACC staff.
What about Biomedical/Healthcare Research in UTRC?
UTRC will accommodate the many and varied biomedical research programs of the six UT health institutions, in addition to the diverse science and engineering—including biology—research programs at the nine UT academic universities. Software, usage policies, system configurations, training, and user support will enable the computational biomedical programs to take maximum advantage of Lonestar, the UT Data Repository, and UT SysNet.
Where can I get more information?
Your first point of contact is your campus UTeam liaison.
For more information about UTDR, you may contact Jerry York, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at UT Health Science Center - San Antonio.
For more information about networking and connectivity, you may contact Wayne Wedemeyer, Director, Office of Telecommunications Services at UT Austin.
For more information about TACC or Lonestar, you may contact Chris Hempel, Director of User Services at TACC by email or by phone at 512-475-9411.
