A one-page summary of the main compute options and what each is best for. The full, filterable catalog is on the home page, and Compute compares them side by side.
Ursa Major (Google Cloud)
Best for: AI model access for research, exotic hardware not available on campus, and archive storage.
- Tier 1 (no recharge to the lab under current terms, within limits): AI model access with a per-lab allowance, exotic hardware (such as TPUs or Arm) through a Research Computing HPC cluster in Google Cloud, by consultation, and archive storage.
- Everything else (VMs, databases, analytics, Standard storage, GPUs) is recharged to a lab funding source.
- Details: Ursa Major and KB005: Ursa Major service tiers.
Where to take GPU and advanced compute work
1. UCR HPCC (first choice for most work)
Best for: batch jobs, simulation, GPU training, MPI.
- The HPCC describes the cluster as over 16,000 CPU cores and NVIDIA GPU nodes (HPCC Access page and Recharging Rates 2026/2027, as of Oct 2026). Current hardware is on the HPCC hardware pages.
- Cost: $1,000 per lab per year (HPCC Recharging Rates 2026/2027, as of Oct 2026). Shared use is subject to the HPCC's quotas and queue policies.
- Access: SSH and Slurm. See HPCC cluster.
2. NRP Nautilus
Best for: containers, web services and Jupyter notebooks on non-sensitive data.
- A Kubernetes platform shared across many institutions.
- No recharge from UCR. Access is through the NRP's own sign-up.
- Details: NRP Nautilus.
3. NAIRR Pilot
Best for: AI research that needs more, or different, accelerators than campus offers.
- Allocations are awarded competitively by the program. No recharge from UCR.
- Details: NAIRR Pilot.
4. NSF ACCESS
Best for: virtual machines you fully control (Jetstream2), servers and web services, and HPC capacity beyond campus.
- Allocations are awarded by application. No recharge from UCR. Small Explore projects are the usual starting point.
- Step-by-step guide: KB009: Using NSF ACCESS and Jetstream2.
If your work needs exotic hardware none of these offer, such as TPUs or Arm, ask us about Ursa Major Tier 1.
This order is a suggestion. The right choice depends on your work and data. Ask us.