The RC condo computing service "Blanca" offers researchers the opportunity to purchase and own compute nodes that will be operated as part of a shared cluster. The aggregate cluster is made available to all condo partners, while owners maintain priority access to their nodes. As of 2023, Blanca has approximately 200 nodes. 

Benefits to partners include 

  • Nodes receive data center rack space, redundant power, and cooling. 

  • Partners have priority access on nodes that they own and can run preemptable jobs on any nodes that are not currently in use by other partners. 

  • RC staff provides system configuration and administration, as well as technical support for users. 

  • Users may access a standard software stack appropriate for a range of research needs. 

  • Jobs may access permanent storage that is common to all RC clusters (/home, /projects, PetaLibrary), and access to Blanca-specific scratch storage. 

  • Partners are able to install additional software applications as needed. 

  • Bulk discount pricing is available for all compute node purchases. 

 

Please note that nodes ordered for Blanca might be deployed as one in a set of four to be housed in a single chassis owned by Research Computing. Node owners are responsible for providing a chassis (and other peripherals) if they wish to reclaim such nodes after their end-of-life in CURC. 

 

To purchase a Blanca node please email: rc-help@colorado.edu 

Example node configurations are indicated below but may be customized, either by researcher request or by RC in communication with the vendor. Potential partners will receive the finalized quote for review and approval before RC initiates their purchase. 

Node type 

Example specifications 

Cost** 

Notes 

Compute node 

AMD EPYC 64C 2.0GHz 

256 GiB RAM (DDR4) 

480 GB local SSD 

10-gigabit Ethernet 

HDR InfiniBand 

$10,000/node 

batch processing, high-throughput computation, and high-performance parallel/distributed computation 

GPU node 

AMD 64C 2.8GHz 

1X NVIDIA Tesla A100 GPU (40 GB memory) 

192 GiB RAM (2666 MT/s) 

1TB local disk (7.2K RPM SATA) 

10-gigabit Ethernet 

$30,000/node 

molecular dynamics, image processing, deep learning; alternate and additional GPUs supported 

High-memory node 

AMD 64C 2.0GHz 

1 TiB RAM (DDR4) 

480 GB local SSD 

10-gigabit Ethernet 

HDR InfiniBand 

$20,000/node 

similar capabilities to “standard” compute node, for jobs that require processing large datasets (e.g., bioinformatics). 

** Prices are listed as a guideline and are subject to change when quoted for the order. Most nodes ordered will be stored in a chassis. When Research Computing does not have available chassis slots, we will need to procure standalone nodes, which tend to cost around 50% more than the prices listed here. This most frequently occurs late in the fiscal year. 

Please visit our FAQ on the CURC ReadTheDocs website for additional information.