{"id":10620,"date":"2026-10-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/?p=10620"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:04:37","slug":"high-throughput-computing-on-firebird-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2026\/10\/15\/high-throughput-computing-on-firebird-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Throughput Computing on Firebird &#8211; and Beyond!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You might know that <a href=\"https:\/\/kb.swarthmore.edu\/wiki\/Firebird_Computing_Cluster\">Firebird<\/a> supports various high-<em><strong>performance<\/strong><\/em> (HPC) computing workflows, but have you heard of high-<em><strong>throughput<\/strong><\/em> (HTC) computing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HPC is useful when a single task requires a substantial amount of computing power to complete; for example, performing complex mathematical operations on a massive amount of data. <a href=\"https:\/\/chtc.cs.wisc.edu\/htc.html\">HTC<\/a>, on the other hand, is useful when you need to perform an independent discrete task on many items. For example, running a pattern identification routine against 10,000 separate images. Another common example is running a parameter sweep across a dataset, such as running the same calculation, adjusting a single variable thousands of times.  In both examples, each iteration is a separate task, entirely independent of the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re expanding support for HTC workloads on Firebird. For larger operations, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/osg-htc.org\/services\/ospool\/\">it is possible to run independent jobs on thousands of systems throughout the United States<\/a>, including <a href=\"https:\/\/ce-dashboard.ospool.osg-htc.org\/overview.html?host=swarthmore-firebird-ce1.svc.osg-htc.org&amp;r=month\">Firebird<\/a>! (Incidentally, the mascot of HTC is the condor, because it can scavenge available compute resources &#8211; a natural companion for Firebird.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If this sounds relevant to your work, please reach out to Jason Simms (jsimms1@swarthmore.edu).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You might know that Firebird supports various high-performance (HPC) computing workflows, but have you heard of high-throughput (HTC) computing? HPC is useful when a single task requires a substantial amount of computing power to complete; for example, performing complex mathematical &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2026\/10\/15\/high-throughput-computing-on-firebird-and-beyond\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">High-Throughput Computing on Firebird &#8211; and Beyond!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":10621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357,430],"tags":[90,128,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-10620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-high-performance-computing","8":"category-research","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-high-performance-computing","11":"tag-research","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Firefly_A-firebird-and-a-condor-flying-together-surrounded-by-computers.-9060-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph2nPL-2Li","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10623,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions\/10623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}