VirtEngine

Solutions · HPC clusters

Put supercomputing capacity on the marketplace

HPC clusters are among the most valuable compute assets in existence, and most run with idle cycles. VirtEngine's HPC module brings scheduler-backed batch capacity into the marketplace natively — your SLURM, MOAB, or Open OnDemand cluster stays exactly as it is.

Who this is for: University, national-lab, and commercial HPC facilities running batch schedulers.

The problem

The problem: batch capacity doesn't fit cloud leases

HPC operates on jobs, allocations, partitions, and walltime — not long-running container leases. Generic cloud marketplaces can't express that model, so cluster operators wanting to monetize spare cycles have had no marketplace that speaks their language.

External users, meanwhile, face months-long allocation processes to access supercomputing capacity that may be idling right now.

How VirtEngine addresses it

Grounded in what the protocol actually does

A job marketplace, not a container shim

The x/hpc module models batch work natively: on-chain HPC jobs with resource, walltime, and partition requirements, offered and priced through the same exchange economics as the rest of the marketplace.

Native scheduler adapters

The provider daemon's HPC integration speaks to your existing controller — munge or JWT auth for SLURM, per-partition configuration — and executes on-chain jobs on your cluster with configurable concurrency limits, timeouts, and crash-safe state recovery.

  • SLURM adapter with munge/JWT authentication and per-partition configuration
  • MOAB and Open OnDemand adapters for existing deployments
  • Job lifecycle service with polling, dispatch, tracking, and recovery
  • Dedicated audit log for job events, security events, and usage

Same settlement rails as everything else

HPC usage batches flow into the standard usage-settlement pipeline: signed records, 24-hour dispute window, escrow release. Your finance office sees settled payments, not a new billing system to run.

Economics

Economics

Jobs are paid from tenant escrow like any lease, with no protocol commission deducted at settlement. Facilities set their own pricing per partition and job class — spare-cycle monetization at prices you control, without disturbing allocation commitments to primary users. Validator transaction fees apply only to chain operations.

Getting started

The path in

  1. Review the HPC provider docs

    docs/hpc-provider-operations.md covers the full operational model.

  2. Register as a provider

    Declare HPC attributes — scheduler type, partitions, hardware — on-chain.

  3. Configure the HPC integration

    Connect the daemon's scheduler adapter to your controller with munge or JWT auth.

  4. Expose partitions

    Choose which partitions and job classes the marketplace may schedule into.

  5. Serve jobs and settle

    On-chain jobs dispatch through your scheduler; usage settles from escrow.

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