Capability Incentives on HECToR
The principal purpose of the Research Councils in funding the HECToR service is to provide a system with capabilities which are unmatched by computing services at the University or department level. HECToR is a high-end supercomputing platform, and as such should be targeted at large-scale simulations which can effectively utilise a significant fraction of the machine.
The Capability Incentives Scheme is an encouragement to users to broaden their computational science and to exploit the capabilities of the service. Under the scheme, jobs will be discounted at three levels depending on how well they scale. The three levels of incentives are:
| Level | Min Number of Cores | AU Discount |
| Bronze | 1024 | 5% |
| Silver | 2048 | 15% |
| Gold | 4096 | 30% |
For example, a job running in a "par:n512c4" queue (2048 cores) would receive a 15% discount, regardless of job duration.
Users of HPCx may already be familiar with a similar scheme which requires the use of a token. In the case of HECToR Capability Incentives, you do not need to apply to receive the discount, nor do you need to specify a token in your batch script.
ALL jobs on HECToR using more than 1024 cores will now be automatically discounted at the appropriate level.
Users wishing assistance in scaling their codes should contact the HECToR Helpdesk.
