Unity Research Computing Platform

Accelerating Research with Unity

The Unity Research Computing Platform offers access to scalable computing tools and services with no HPC experience required –  an easily accessible Graphical User Interface (GUI) is provided for applications such as Jupyter, RStudio, MatLab, and more.

Unity is an effective solution for computational needs that go beyond a laptop or workstation, including those that need:

• More CPUs
• More Memory
• Higher quality GPUs
• Ability to launch many simultaneous workflows 
• Ability to launch workflows that take a long time
• Data storage needs beyond your local hard drive space

The Unity Research Computing Platform serves as a reliable and accessible way for you to collaborate on complex computational work with ease, or to host computational work for a classroom setting in support of your educational research work. Specialized research software available on laptops is often also available on Unity.

Curious if your workflow could be improved on Unity, or have questions about software availability? 

Rates & Services

Unity provides a generous “basic tier” for basic compute and storage access for eligible PIs. For needs that go beyond our basic tier, research groups can purchase expanded access to additional storage, compute, consultation services, and collaboration opportunities.

BASIC TIER

• 50 GB of home directory storage per user
• 1 TB of high performance work directory storage per research group
• 5 TB of project directory storage per research group upon request
• Temporary high performance scratch space for jobs with large intermediate files
• Access to several cpu and gpu Slurm partitions, subject to concurrent resource limits
• Access to basic facilitation services—including Unity workshops, installation assistance, help-desk support, and short-term consulting—and the Unity User Community

EXPANDED ACCESS

For needs that go beyond our basic tier, researchers can purchase expanded access to: 

• Additional storage capacity
• Priority compute access available by the hour, or by leasing or purchasing hardware
• Medium & long-term consultation services & collaboration opportunities

Additional storage capacity

Researchers with large data storage needs should consider purchasing additional storage capacity in Unity. For information on pricing and which type of storage best suits your needs, please see our detailed documentation on purchasing additional storage.

Priority compute access

There is a strict maximum limit of 1000 cores for use of our basic tier. Researchers who require over 1000 cores must explore funding options to purchase priority compute access.

Researchers that are sensitive to long wait times, either for larger jobs or small jobs with tight deadlines, have the opportunity to purchase priority access to resources. Wait times for accessing Unity depend on the overall cluster utilization at any given moment in time. We strive for users to have near instantaneous access for interactive workloads up to 8 cores, 64GB of RAM, and a single 12GB VRAM GPU at a time. 

For batch jobs requiring access to a full node (128 cores), we anticipate a minimum 12 hour wait time. Larger workloads will run on Unity with our basic tier, but wait times can substantially increase to multiple days for large jobs or jobs with very specific node requirements.

We recommend researchers with GPU requirements greater than a single large GPU (greater than 40GB) to explore funding options for priority access to GPUs. Wait times for GPUs with more than 40GB of VRAM can be hours, while jobs requiring multiple GPUs can stretch beyond a single day.

Please see our documentation on priority access and our documentation on writing funding for priority access into your proposals.

Access to medium & long-term consultation services & collaboration opportunities

Our research facilitation team consists of research scientists and graduate students who are available for funding to support your research needs, whether they are short or long-term projects.

For more information, see our Research Support page.

Eligibility & Access

Types of Access

PI Account: A Unity PI account is reserved for qualified Principal Investigators (PIs) managing research groups, which are typically faculty members. PIs have the ability to add users (students and other collaborators) to their accounts as Unity users. Resources in Unity are shared at the PI level, meaning users added to PI accounts share the storage and compute with other users in the PI group.

User Account: All other users have standard accounts and must be associated with a PI group in order to access Unity resources.  PIs are welcome to add students and research collaborators to their PI group from most academic or non-academic institutions.

UMass Amherst

Tenure track faculty, visiting faculty, and full-time lecturers are eligible for PI accounts. Occasionally, a PI account is appropriate for lab managers, staff, and administrators who oversee research projects on the behalf of PIs, departments, centers, or institutes.

Eligible members of the UMass Amherst community are welcome to sign in and request a PI account. For step-by-step instructions on requesting an account, see Requesting a Unity account

Research collaborators, including students, can sign in and request to join the PI group affiliated with their research group in order to access Unity.

Other Academic Institutions

Partner academic institutions are welcome to sign in and request a PI account. Eligibility for PI accounts is determined by the partner institution. For step-by-step instructions, see Requesting a Unity account.

Interested in joining Unity? See our list of current partnering academic institutions and information on becoming a partner. 

Industry

Unity access is available to industry from small to large scale. See our Unity documentation to learn more about what’s available. For any further questions or inquiries, start a conversation with us now. 

We provide two tiers of facilitation to support your use of the Unity Research Computing Platform: 

Tier 1

• Ticket submission through email at @email & Unity User Community Slack access
• Basic public and open source software building and cluster-wide deployment
• Access to Unity-led workshops and tutorial materials

Tier 2

• Advising on group-specific workflows and software (does not include software development, see Research Support for more information)
• Propriety or private software building and installation assistance
• Short-term engagements under 5 hours at the discretion of the facilitation director

We also offer additional opportunities for collaboration and facilitation outside of what's offered through the Unity Research Computing Platform.