Counting Processor cores / CPU cores

We use CPU cores and processor cores as interchangeable terms, so you may encounter either.
Two types of licenses are distinguished: host-locked (most typical license) and floating.
For teaching licenses and cloud licenses, other systems are used, contact us for details.

Host-locked licenses

The minimum amount of CPU cores that can be licensed is 16. Additional options are 32, 64, 128 and unlimited cores (see also pricing table). The total number of cores can be on one or multiple machines. We count the total number of physical CPU cores on all licensed machines. For processors with E and P cores, only the P (performance) cores are counted. The count of CPU cores does not increase by using hyperthreading (which does not improve performance) nor by the presence of a GPU card.

NOTE: It is not possible to get a host-locked license for a subset of cores on a given machine.
We cannot provide an 16-core host-locked license for a 24-core machine.

Floating licenses

If you have a Linux cluster and want to make limited use of the Amsterdam Modeling Suite (AMS), a floating license may be used. This allows you to run on a limited number of cores at any time, but these may be used from any of your compute nodes having access to a central shared directory.

For example with a 16-core floating license, you can use a maximum of 16 CPU cores of the cluster at the same time, so either one 16-core job or two 8-core jobs can run concurrently on any node of the cluster. 

For our license fees, floating cores count double, i.e. a 16-core floating is priced the same as a 32-core host-locked license.

AMS Foundation will be enabled on all nodes of a cluster in a floating license.

Floating licenses are only available on Linux and can not be used on Windows or Mac.

Mixed host-locked and floating licenses

Mixed floating / host-locked licenses are also available. The minimum number of floating cores per cluster that we allow is eight (8). Floating cores are counted as two (2) each, host-locked cores as one (1) each.

Examples:

  • Two 4-core machines and one 8-core machine together add up to (2×4 + 8) sixteen cores
  • An 8-core machine with hyperthreading counts as eight cores. We always count physical cores (hyperthreading is not recommended anyway). Since the minimum number of cores is sixteen, you can license an additional eight-core machine for the 16-core license.
  • A 24-core floating license and two 8-core host-locked licenses are counted as 24×2 + 8 + 8 = 64 host-locked cores
  • A 128-core cluster can be licensed on the whole (most flexible), for specific nodes (cheapest, least flexible) or with a floating license (flexible, any nodes in the cluster may be used up to a specified number of cores)

Unlimited licenses

An unlimited license will enable all members of your own research group (or site if you purchase a site license) to install our software on their machines on the research site, including laptops and desktops to facilitate setting up, running and analyzing jobs remotely.

Unlimited licenses are also ideal for teaching purposes (at no additional cost). Students can easily download and use AMS during the course. The installation is smooth, with a set number of licenses automatically approved for the teaching account, either on the instruction machines or, on the students personal laptops. SCM then also offers support to the system administrator for setting up AMS on the student machines, but no direct support can be given to the students.

Recommended hardware

Please check out the summary from a webinar on hardware recommendations.

Cloud licensing options for AMS

Please contact us if you (also) want to run the Amsterdam Modeling Suite in the cloud.