Documentation

GPU Access

Draft

This documentation is in draft and under active review. Figures for the Fall 2026 GPU reservation system are not yet published, and some pages describe behavior that has not been verified against a primary source. Confirm any figure with parasol@ucsd.edu before relying on it.

From Fall 2026, a reservation system manages GPU access on PARASOL (formerly DSMLP). If your course, project, or research needs a GPU, start here to choose a GPU class, reserve time, and plan the Service Units your sessions spend.

Page Covers
GPU Classes GPU class sizes, choosing and requesting a class, preset classes on Datahub, a missing or misspelled class label, and confirming the allocation.
Workloads by GPU Class Estimating GPU memory, differences within a class, and example course and research work for each class, with the cards and slices behind it.
GPU Hardware & CUDA Specifications of the cards and MIG slices that can back a GPU class, how MIG slices divide a card, supported CUDA versions, and CUDA profiling.
Reservations Reservation types, booking ahead and launching without a booking, the claim window, length caps, best-effort reservations, team mode, and routes to more time.
Service Units & Budgets What spends Service Units, hourly rates, budget sizes and windows, the cancellation penalty, and the routes available when a budget runs out.
Quotas, Cohorts & Availability GPU quotas, borrowing beyond quota, cohorts, the symptoms of a full cluster, the status page, and requesting a quota increase.
What Ends a Session Idle culling, the end of a reservation window, overstay, preemption, and maintenance closures.

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