Utah's AI Factory supercomputer, Redtail, is a statewide AI resource created to provide Utah's institutions of higher education, state organizations, and commercial sector with access to advanced computing resources, training, and support. Redtail will accelerate and support research, education, innovation, and AI workforce development across the state.
\n![\"Redtail](\"https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/redtail/Redtail-Logo-HRZ_RGB.png\"){kind=logo}
\nThe Redtail AI Factory is built for national impact and will support regional AI innovation across sectors and position Utah as a leader in AI-enabled research and innovation. Redtail represents a significant increase in high-end GPU computing capacity at the University of Utah, fueled by $50\u202fmillion in investment across public and private sectors over five years. The Redtail platform is a partnership among the State of Utah, University of Utah, and Huntsman Family Foundation. The supercomputer will advance Utah as a national leader in AI research and innovation, allowing users across the state to train, apply, and scale large AI models across multiple servers with many GPUs. The CHPC has the great privilege of conducting operations and user enablement for Redtail on behalf of the university and state.
\nPlease see the Redtail documentation for details about the platform.
\nThe webinar \"Meet Redtail: Utah's New AI Factory Supercomputer for Research and Education\" was held on July 8, 2026. Materials from the webinar are available below.
\nThe Center for High Performance Computing will begin emergency maintenance to apply security updates to high-performance computing clusters (granite, notchpeak, kingspeak, lonepeak, and redwood) in a rolling fashion on July 22. The updates are necessary to address a recently announced vulnerability. System administrators will update and reboot compute nodes when no jobs are running on them. This update will not affect running jobs, but researchers may see nodes in a \u201cDRAIN\u201d state before updates are applied; new jobs will not be able to start on a node until updates on that node finish.
\n\nThe CHPC will also update interactive nodes, including login nodes (such as granite1 and granite2, redwood1 and redwood2, and similar nodes on other clusters) and research group-owned interactive nodes, on all high-performance computing clusters. Administrators will reboot the interactive nodes on July 22 at approximately 12:00 p.m. MDT to apply important security updates. We recommend signing out from interactive nodes prior to this time. Any active sessions or unsaved progress on interactive nodes will be lost when the nodes reboot.
\n\nIn accordance with the CHPC\u2019s emergency maintenance policy, important security patches must be applied promptly to protect system integrity and safety across our shared infrastructure. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
\n\nIf you have any questions or concerns about upcoming security updates, please contact the CHPC by email at helpdesk@chpc.utah.edu.
", "intro_text": "The Center for High Performance Computing will begin emergency maintenance to apply security updates to high-performance computing clusters (granite, notchpeak, kingspeak, lonepeak, and redwood) in a rolling fashion on July 22.", "article": "fe63b", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/maintenance.png", "banner_alt": "Banner to illustrate maintenance, with road sign icon", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/exclamation.png", "icon_alt": "Exclamation icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "1e9a4": { "title": "Upcoming AI Workshop: Fundamentals of Deep Learning", "content_html": "NVIDIA and theWorkshop Name: Fundamentals of Deep\n Learning
Date: Thursday, August 20,\n 2026
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.\n MDT
Location: 303 Chipeta Way (Research Park), Salt Lake City, UT; details,\n including the room number, will be provided by email to registrants in advance of the workshop (registration is\n required)
This training is offered exclusively to verifiable academic students, staff, and\n researchers. Please use your institutional email address when registering. Registrants using personal\n email addresses will not receive further details about the event.
Workshop Agenda:
\nThis workshop is brought to you by NVIDIA and the University of Utah.
", "intro_text": "The NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) and CHPC invite you to attend a hands-on training workshop, Fundamentals of Deep Learning, on August 20.", "article": "1e9a4", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/nvidia_deep_learning.webp", "banner_alt": "Person working on a laptop computer", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/presentation.png", "icon_alt": "Presentation icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "0edd3": { "title": "Redtail, Utah's AI Factory supercomputer, ranks among fastest and greenest systems in the world", "content_html": "\n\nThe University of Utah returns to the global supercomputing rankings with Redtail, an AI factory designed to expand access to advanced computing across the state.
\n\nRedtail ranked № 159 for performance and № 76 for energy efficiency on the TOP500 list of supercomputers released in late June. The system comes online this summer with the goal of advancing Utah\u2019s Pro-Human AI Initiative and amplifying existing strengths, from accelerating lifesaving discoveries to supporting workforce training to driving innovation in manufacturing, agriculture, aerospace and more.
\n\n\"I believe Redtail is more than one of the world\u2019s fastest and greenest supercomputers, it is the foundation of Utah's AI future,\u201d said Taylor Randall, university president. \u201cWe are building an AI ecosystem with our partners where researchers, students, entrepreneurs and communities can use AI to solve society's greatest challenges. Because we believe the future of AI will be measured not just by the speed of our computers, but by the impact it will have on people's lives.\u201d
\n\n \n\n \u201cRedtail is more than one of the world\u2019s fastest and greenest supercomputers, it is the foundation of Utah's AI future.\u201d\n\n\n
Redtail is the result of a $50 million public\u2013private partnership among the U, the State of Utah and the Huntsman Family Foundation, with HPE supercomputing infrastructure and NVIDIA technologies. The collaboration expands Utahns\u2019 access to advanced AI computing: the HPE Cray system in Redtail also powers leading supercomputers in the TOP list. And with its list debut, Redtail joins the country\u2019s most capable academic AI systems. Among U.S. public universities on the list, Redtail ranks fifth, after systems at Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Florida.
\n\n\u201cOur top listing among peer universities underscores our mission to serve the public good, prioritizing safety and broad access to state-of-the-art AI infrastructure for Utahns beyond a single lab, campus or company,\u201d said Manish Parashar, chief AI officer for the university and the executive director of the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute.
\n\nSuch access depends on more than hardware. AI infrastructure is becoming foundational across disciplines but requires significant expertise to deploy, maintain and use effectively. For Redtail, much of that day-to-day expertise will come from SCI\u2019s Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC), which has supported research computing and data needs for the U and beyond for nearly 40 years. CHPC, which is directed by Bill Miller, will operate Redtail and provide user enablement and support.
\n\n\u201cOur aim is to lower barriers to entry so that Utah researchers, educators, students, businesses and public servants can easily use AI at scale to accelerate their projects,\u201d said Miller, senior director for research computing and data. To fully realize that vision, Redtail\u2019s broader enablement ecosystem will include AI ambassadors and engineers, extensive training programs and innovation labs\u2014and CHPC will continue to work closely with HPE and other industry partners.
\n\n \n\n \u201cOur aim is to lower barriers to entry so that Utah researchers, educators, students, businesses and public servants can easily use AI at scale.\u201d\n\n\n
\u201cWe are proud to celebrate the debut of Redtail on the list of the world\u2019s fastest supercomputers, accelerating the state of Utah\u2019s AI strategy across research, engineering and talent efforts,\u201d said Trish Damkroger, senior vice president and general manager, HPC & AI Infrastructure Solutions, at HPE. \u201cOur partnership with the University of Utah brings together strong expertise in high performance computing and large-scale infrastructure that will help advance Utah\u2019s statewide AI efforts.\u201d
\n\nThe recent rise of generative AI has heightened competition for TOP500 spots, with leading systems often representing billions of dollars in investment. Rankings have been released twice a year since 1993 and are determined by how quickly systems solve a very large math problem that pushes a machine to use its processors, memory, networking, and software libraries at huge scale. The Green500, first published in 2006, uses the same benchmark but ranks systems by how much computing work they complete per unit of energy consumed.
\n\nUniversity of Utah systems have made a total of 18 appearances on the TOP500 list, though this year\u2019s inclusion is the U\u2019s first since 2009. It\u2019s also the university\u2019s first-ever appearance on the Green500.
\n\nRedtail\u2019s rollout will begin with access opportunities for the Utah System of Higher Education and will expand to serve additional user segments across the state. Read more on the CHPC website.
\n\nAttribution: This article first appeared on the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute website.
\n\n ", "intro_text": "The Redtail AI Factory reached rank 159 on the June 2026 TOP500 list and ranks among the world's most powerful computer systems. The platform also reached rank 76 on the Green500 list, which considers performance per unit of power. These rankings show that Redtail is not only a major investment in infrastructure, but also a major opportunity for Utahns to pursue ambitious research, education, and innovation with large-scale AI.", "article": "0edd3", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/redtail_banner_soar.png", "banner_alt": "Banner image with Redtail logo", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/redtail_icon.png", "icon_alt": "Redtail logo, depicting a redtail hawk in flight", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": false, "tags": [ "Redtail" ] }, "4aef7": { "title": "Scheduled maintenance of HPC clusters and standalone servers on July 14", "content_html": "The Center for High Performance Computing will have a downtime on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The downtime will begin at 8:00 a.m. MDT and continue through the afternoon. It will affect high-performance computing clusters (granite, notchpeak, kingspeak, lonepeak, redwood; Open OnDemand) and standalone servers (including narwhal, beehive, and CryoSPARC and ColabFold servers) in the General and Protected Environments. Virtual machines will not be affected. This downtime is necessary to apply patches and updates to systems following recent operating system vulnerabilities.
\n\nThe CHPC will post updates on scheduled maintenance to the status page. Please consider subscribing to updates with the \"Get updates\" button on the status page.
\n\nIf you have any questions or concerns about the downtime or its effects, please contact the CHPC at helpdesk@chpc.utah.edu. Thanks for your support while we work to keep research computing resources secure.
", "intro_text": "The Center for High Performance Computing will have a scheduled downtime on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. The downtime will begin at 8:00 a.m. MDT and continue through the afternoon. It will affect high-performance computing clusters (granite, notchpeak, kingspeak, lonepeak, redwood; Open OnDemand) and standalone servers (including narwhal, beehive, and CryoSPARC and ColabFold servers) in the General and Protected Environments.", "article": "4aef7", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/maintenance.png", "banner_alt": "Banner to illustrate maintenance, with road sign icon", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/exclamation.png", "icon_alt": "Exclamation icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "e7d7b": { "title": "Kingspeak cluster retirement", "content_html": "The Kingspeak cluster is now over ten years old, and its hardware is far past the warranty period. The CHPC has done its best to continue maintaining the cluster for node owners on a best-effort basis. However, we need to proceed with expanding and modernizing our shared computing capabilities for broad benefit within the footprint we have at the Downtown Data Center. We have therefore made the difficult decision to retire the Kingspeak cluster to make space for expanding the Granite cluster. The new Granite nodes will provide considerably more compute resources using less power.
\n\nOn Monday, July 6, we will retire compute nodes kp001\u2013kp032. These are CHPC-owned general nodes, currently free to use without allocation. After this phase, 22 general nodes will remain.
\n\nOn Tuesday, September 1, we will retire the rest of Kingspeak. This will include the remaining CHPC general compute nodes, owner compute nodes, general interactive nodes, and owner interactive nodes.
\n\nFor groups whose nodes will be retired, we now offer the purchase of reserved computing service over a defined service period in lieu of purchases of research group-owned nodes. Please contact helpdesk@chpc.utah.edu for more information on this, or if you have any questions or concerns about the retirement of Kingspeak.
", "intro_text": "In order to make space for the new hardware that is coming to the Granite cluster, the CHPC is planning to retire the Kingspeak cluster.", "article": "e7d7b", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/partition_change.png", "banner_alt": "Banner image depicting nodes on an HPC cluster", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/servers.png", "icon_alt": "Server icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "3dcfb": { "title": "Isolating AI coding agents", "content_html": "The CHPC provides Text User Interfaces (TUIs) for popular AI agentic coding tools Claude, Codex, Antigravity, and OpenCode. In order to reduce the chances these agents take unintended actions, we will be implementing isolation of these agents via options in CHPC-installed module files in the near future. Isolation will limit the system exposure to the agents, including the ability to read and write files and access the internet. In general, our goal is to allow file write access only to the directory and subdirectories from which the agent was launched, allow file read access only to the files that are owned by the user, and allow internet access only to the university network. Different agents have their own isolation rules along these lines, which we are planning to use as much as possible.
\n\nIn particular, for the supported AI agent TUIs:
\n\nAs a reminder, in order to control the agentic AI tool settings, we do not allow users to install their own. Please use the CHPC modules and let us know if you encounter any problems while using them. More information about the tools is available on the CHPC documentation.
", "intro_text": "The CHPC provides Text User Interfaces (TUIs) for popular AI agentic coding tools Claude, Codex, Antigravity, and OpenCode. In order to reduce the chances these agents take unintended actions, we will be implementing \"sandboxing\" of these agents via options in CHPC-installed module files in the near future.", "article": "3dcfb", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/chatbot_update.png", "banner_alt": "Chatbot banner image", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/ml_ai.png", "icon_alt": "Machine learning icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "bcb37": { "title": "Updates to events", "content_html": "Research computing facilitators from the CHPC will join the office hours of the AI Office monthly, during the first session of the month, starting Friday, August 14. The Events page on the CHPC website provides further details about upcoming events, including office hours.
The CHPC will continue to host office hours most Friday afternoons.
\nThe CHPC's informal Monthly AI Discussion Forum has been moved from the first Tuesday of the month to the first Friday of the month, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. MT. The first such meeting will be on Friday, August 7; we will not meet on Friday, July 3 due to the Independence Day holiday.
\nThe Using R at the CHPC presentation has been moved from Tuesday, July 14 to Friday, July 17 because of scheduled maintenance on HPC systems on the former date. Please update your calendar if you plan to attend.
", "intro_text": "Multiple updates: Research computing facilitators from the CHPC will join the office hours of the AI Office monthly, during the first session of the month, starting Friday, August 14; the Monthly AI Discussion Forum has been moved to the first Friday of the month; and a presentation scheduled for July 14 has been moved to July 17.", "article": "bcb37", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/calendar_banner.png", "banner_alt": "Image with calendar icon", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/presentation.png", "icon_alt": "Presentation icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] }, "f335a_____": { "title": "Awarded allocation for the summer quarter is now available", "content_html": "Allocation for the summer quarter is now available. Allocation provides priority access to resources on some CHPC clusters. For details and instructions on applying for allocation, please see the documentation on allocations.
", "intro_text": "Allocation provides priority access to resources on some CHPC clusters. For details and instructions on applying for allocation, please see the documentation on allocations.", "article": "f335a_____", "banner_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/newsletter_banners/calendar_banner.png", "banner_alt": "Red background with calendar icon", "icon_image": "https://chpc.utah.edu/_resources/images/icons/calendar.png", "icon_alt": "Calendar icon", "include_on_website": true, "include_in_newsletter": true, "tags": [] } }