Owens cluster history by the numbers

The Owens high performance computing (HPC) cluster, decommissioned in February 2025, ran more than 36 million jobs during its time at the OSC data center. The $9.7 million system, which launched in 2016, was named for Ohio native and Olympic champion J.C. “Jesse” Owens. 

At the time of its launch, Owens boasted nearly 10 times the performance power of any previous OSC system. During the cluster’s lifespan, OSC observed a growing number of clients use its GPUs for artificial intelligence and machine learning work. In addition, Owens featured a novel cooling system with rear door heat exchangers.  

The cluster’s lifetime usage statistics, captured by OSC below, reflect several trends over the past decade: clients’ rising use of GPUs and Python for data analysis, as well as an increase in commercial clients.

Job Stats:

Number:

% of Total: 

Total jobs run 

        36,154,977  

 

Jobs that requested GPUs 

          2,110,504  

5.8% 

Jobs that requested Big Memory 

             439,542  

1.2% 

Jobs that used a single core 

        10,197,238  

28.2% 

Jobs that used no more than a single node (28 cores) 

        34,916,359  

96.6% 

Jobs that used more than 81 nodes / 2,268 cores (default maximum allowed) 

                  2,949  

0.01% 

Jobs completed in less than 1 hour 

        28,638,060  

79.2% 

Jobs that waited less than 30 minutes in the queue 

        27,777,842  

76.8% 

 

Timing Stats: 

  • Total core hours: 1,131,350,805 

  • Total GPU hours: 6,418,404 

  • Average wall time used: 1 hour, 11 minutes, 27 seconds 

  • Average queue wait time: 1 hour, 3 minutes, 38 seconds 

  • Longest running job: 30 days, 28 seconds 

  • First job start time: 2016-08-27 12:06:07 

  • Last job end time: 2025-02-03 06:46:32 

  • Elapsed time between first and last jobs: 8 years, 5 months, 6 days, 15 hours, 5 minutes, 19 seconds 

  • Physical delivery: 2016-06-06 

  • Physical removal of last components from the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC): 2025-05-01 

Client Stats: 

  • Count of distinct projects that ran jobs: 2,292  

  • Count of distinct users that ran jobs: 10,284  

  • Most active user by core hours: Minkyu Kim, The Ohio State University (31,616,854 / 2.8% of total) 

  • Most active user by jobs run: Balasubramanian Ganesan, Mars - Wrigley (3,357,138 / 9.3% of total)  

  • Most active project by core hours:  PAA0023 “SIMCenter,” Ohio State (54,212,464 / 4.8% of total) 

  • Most active project by jobs run:  PYS1083 “Mars Genome Assembly,” Mars-Wrigley (3,357,138 / 9.3% of total)  

  • First non-staff member to run a job: Greg Padgett, TotalSim (2016-08-27) 

  • Last non-staff member to run a job: Mason Pacenta, Ohio State (2025-02-03) 

Misc Stats: 

  • Most run application: Python 

  • 5,787,724 jobs (16.0% of total) 

  • 98,653,602 core hours (8.7% of total) 

  • 822,760 GPU hours 

  • Average cores used per job: 15 

  • Average lifetime utilization: 65.4%