Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC)

What Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) does

Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) is the centralized research computing facility of Purdue University, providing high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, data storage, and expert consulting to faculty, staff, and graduate students conducting computationally intensive research. Operated as a department within Purdue IT with 42 staff, RCAC runs a multi-cluster platform anchored by Anvil — Purdue's most powerful supercomputer, built through a $10 million NSF system acquisition grant — and a fleet of community clusters including Gautschi, Gilbreth, Bell, Rossmann, and others, supported by Data Depot shared storage and Fortress long-term archive. Specialized service lines include the Scientific Solutions Group (research software engineering), Computational Biology Services (bioinformatics), AI and Data Science consulting, and the Envision Center for visualization.

RCAC's compute stack pairs CPU and GPU partitions (AMD EPYC Genoa CPUs, NVIDIA L40S and H100 GPUs, 100–200 Gbps InfiniBand interconnects) with HPC-specific storage and queuing infrastructure. Through the NSF-funded ACCESS program ($121 million national initiative) and the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot, Anvil is exposed to tens of thousands of researchers across the United States. Indiana's AI infrastructure footprint is extended through the I-CAN consortium with Indiana University and Notre Dame, and the center co-hosts regional AI workshops with Arizona State University and Mississippi State University.

As a non-commercial service unit within a public land-grant university, RCAC does not generate commercial revenue. Funding flows from NSF grants (notably the Anvil acquisition and ACCESS allocation), centralized Purdue University budgets, and user fees paid by research groups purchasing community cluster access. Customers are primarily Purdue faculty and staff, supplemented by external academic researchers accessing Anvil through ACCESS allocations and industry partners collaborating on research computing projects. The center is governed as part of Purdue IT, with no external equity holders and no venture capital exposure.

Name

Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC)

Legal name

Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC), Purdue University

Website

https://rcac.purdue.edu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) is a university research computing center operating the Anvil supercomputer and a fleet of community clusters to deliver high-performance computing, storage, and AI consulting services to Purdue faculty and external academic researchers nationwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

High-Performance Computing Services

SIC

Electronic Computers (3571)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation) (HDACAOAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

HPC Clusters & Scale-Out Compute (x86/ARM) (HDACAOAB), GPU-Accelerated HPC Systems (HDACAOAC), HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH), Research Computing & High-Performance Computing (HPC) User Support (EDALAMAK)

Keywords

• High-performance computing
• Supercomputing infrastructure
• Research data storage
• Bioinformatics services
• AI computing platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

West Lafayette

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. NSF Funding: RCAC receives significant funding through NSF grants, including the $10 million Anvil system acquisition and the $121 million ACCESS program. These federal investments fund infrastructure and operations.
2. University Support: Centralized research computing resources funded by Purdue University to support faculty and staff researchers.
3. Community Cluster Purchases: Research groups purchase access to community clusters, providing shared HPC resources at lower costs through collective negotiating power.
4. Industry Partnerships: Partnerships with industry for research collaborations, software licensing, and technology access.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

RCAC provides centralized high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure including supercomputers, community clusters, and data storage systems to support Purdue University faculty, staff, and external academic researchers. The center delivers advanced computational resources, AI/data science support, bioinformatics services, research software engineering, and national resource allocation through the NSF ACCESS program and NAIRR Pilot.

Product overview

RCAC operates as a centralized research computing division at Purdue University offering a platform-plus-services model. The core infrastructure consists of multiple Community Clusters (Bell, Gautschi, Gilbreth, Rossmann, Rowdy, Negishi, Geddes, Weber, Scholar, Hammer) providing CPU, GPU, and high-memory compute nodes, supplemented by storage systems (Data Depot, Fortress Archive) and the Anvil supercomputer. Around these computational resources, RCAC provides specialized service offerings including AI and Data Science support, Computational Biology/Bioinformatics Services, Software Engineering through the RSE Center, and access to the NSF-funded ACCESS program. Users can also access training, workshops, and consultation services through Coffee Hour sessions and the Knowledge Base.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Anvil: Purdue University's most powerful supercomputer, providing advanced computing capabilities through NSF ACCESS program
• Community Clusters
• ACCESS
• Women In HPC
• Scientific Solutions Group (SSG)
• Envision Center

Products and services

• Community Clusters

Quantifiable outcome

• Tens of thousands of researchers served nationally through ACCESS program
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNSF-funded program ($121M) connecting global computing, data, and research resources into a unified virtual system. Anvil provides resources through ACCESS, serving tens of thousands of researchers nationwide.
• National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) PilotcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNAIRR Pilot initiative provides supplemental funding to Anvil for AI research access. RCAC co-hosts regional AI workshops as part of this initiative with partners Arizona State University and Mississippi State University.
• Arizona State University (ASU)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerASU collaborated with Purdue and Mississippi State to host the NSF NAIRR Regional AI Workshop. ASU's Research Technology Office Director provided opening welcome and facilitators contributed to workshop sessions.
• Mississippi State UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Purdue and ASU to host the NSF NAIRR Regional AI Workshop for researchers throughout the Midwest.
• Indiana UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIU provides Jetstream 2 resources and participates in regional AI initiatives. IU's Director of the Luddy AI Center delivered keynote at NAIRR workshop. Both institutions collaborate on the Indiana AI Corridor consortium.
• Indiana Consortium for AI InnovatioN (I-CAN)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerI-CAN consortium of Indiana R1 universities (Purdue, IU, Notre Dame) makes advanced AI computing resources available to all Indiana researchers, including Anvil and Jetstream 2.
• Notre Dame UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNotre Dame's Associate Director of Research Software Engineering participated in panel discussion on the Indiana AI Corridor. Part of the I-CAN consortium for statewide AI resource access.
• DellcoreTechnology or IntegrationDell partnered with AMD and Purdue for the Bell cluster deployment, contributing to Bell becoming the most powerful system ever deployed at Purdue.
• AMDcoreTechnology or IntegrationAMD partnered with Dell and Purdue for Bell cluster, providing AMD EPYC Rome processors. Bell's successor Gautschi uses AMD EPYC Genoa processors.
• Purdue ITcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRCAC operates as part of Purdue IT, providing centralized research computing. Community Clusters are purchased through Purdue IT which negotiates collectively for research groups.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): University-based HPC center at UT Austin operating national-scale supercomputers (Frontera, Stampede, Vista) and serving researchers through NSF ACCESS allocations, the same federal program in which RCAC's Anvil participates.
• Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC): Joint CMU/University of Pittsburgh HPC center operating Bridges-2 and contributing to NSF ACCESS, offering similar community allocations, GPU/HPC, and biomedical research services.
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA): University-based HPC center at UIUC operating Blue Waters/Delta supercomputers, providing NSF ACCESS compute, AI/data science consulting, and bioinformatics services — a near-direct functional mirror of RCAC.
• San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC): University-based HPC center at UC San Diego operating Expanse and contributing to NSF ACCESS, with comparable service portfolio (bioinformatics, AI, data management) and ACCESS allocation pathways.
• Center for Computational Research (CCR) at University at Buffalo: Mid-sized university HPC center offering community clusters, GPU compute, storage, and consulting services to regional researchers — a structural analog to RCAC at the institutional scale.
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC): University-based research computing group providing HTC/HPC services, including contributions to the NSF ACCESS program, with a comparable faculty-driven allocation model.

Broad incumbents

• Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF): DOE-operated facility running Frontier (the leading US exascale system) with open-science allocations, operating at a scale above university centers but feeding the same research-compute ecosystem.
• Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF): DOE national-laboratory HPC facility operating Aurora/Theta, providing INCITE/ALCC allocations to researchers including through the ALCF Lighthouse program that RCAC explicitly supports.
• AWS HPC on EC2 / ParallelCluster: Commercial hyperscaler offering on-demand GPU and HPC capacity (H100 instances, ParallelCluster) that competes with university clusters for budget-share, especially for industry partners.

Regional players

• Indiana University Research Technologies (Jetstream 2): Indiana University's research computing arm that operates Jetstream 2, the cloud-style HPC resource contributed to the I-CAN consortium with RCAC; closest geographic peer and direct consortium partner.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/purduercac
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/purduercac
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/purdue-rosen-center-for-advanced-computing-rcac
• Instagraminstagram.com/purduercac

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Purdue's Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC)