Single Board Cluster Competition
Welcome to the Single Board Cluster Competition for students, where efficiency is the key to success! In this competition, we challenge you to create the most efficient single board computer cluster that can perform complex tasks while using the least amount of power and resources.
Sponsors
What is a SBC Cluster?
A Single Board Computer (SBC) cluster refers to a group of single-board computers that are interconnected to work together as a unified computing system. Each single-board computer is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, typically with a processor, memory, storage, and various other components. When these SBCs are connected in a cluster, they can collectively perform tasks that would be challenging for a single board to handle alone. Clustering allows for parallel processing, where multiple computers work on different parts of a task simultaneously, potentially speeding up computation.
Benchmarks and Applications
Participants will be required to run several benchmarks and applications to showcase their skills and the performance of their clusters. You can find more information about these benchmarks and applications, along with their requirements, on their respective websites.
High Performance Linpack (HPL)
A Portable Implementation of the High-Performance Linpack Benchmark for Distributed-Memory Computers
Link:
https://www.netlib.org/benchmark/hpl/
D-LLAMA
Tensor parallelism is all you need. Run LLMs on an AI cluster at home using any device.
Link:
https://github.com/b4rtaz/distributed-llama
MDTest
Evaluates parallel file system metadata performance on POSIX-compliant systems.
Link:
https://wiki.lustre.org/MDTest
IQ-TREE
Phylogenomic analysis for massive datasets using complex evolutionary models.
Link:
https://github.com/iqtree/iqtree2
Mystery application
A mystery application that will be revealed at the start of competition.
Link:
XX
"This is an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience with HPC, enhancing technical skills and preparing for industry challenges."
Louise Møller Haase Vice Dean, Aalborg University
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
We will be updating this section with more questions and answers as they arise.
When and where is it?
The competition will be held virtually from April 9th - 11th 2026.
What is the budget for the hardware?
6000 USD MSRP
What is the power budget for the cluster?
250 Watts
When is the deadline for sign up?
The application deadline is on the 2nd of February 2026. Your real deadline is getting hardware, and setting it up in time. After sign up you need to submit a proposal for the hardware you're going to use by the 23rd of February 2026.
How many students can be in a team? Do all members need to be undergraduates and/or from the same university?
Each team should have 4-8 members. Teams are welcome to have students from different universities. We ask that all students officially competing are undergraduates unless you are unable to meet the minimum number of team members (in this case, please reach out to the organizers prior to submitting the team application).
Ready to sign up?
Everyone is welcome to join the competition, and be part of our community!