Software Policies

Last updated: September 23, 2020

NOTE: Some licensed software have usage restrictions. You are required to abide by any restrictions as noted for the individual software at our software page.

Software Acquisition & Licensing

Texas A&M University High Performance Research Computing has many commercial and freeware packages installed on our supercomputers. Our approach to acquisition of additional software depends upon its cost, licensing restrictions, and user interest.

Single User Interest

The license for the software is purchased by the user and his/her department or sponsor. The staff will be happy to install or help install the package on appropriate HPRC resources.

Group Interest

If a package is of interest to a group of several users, the best approach at first is for one user to act as a primary sponsor and arrange to split the procurement/licensing costs among the group. In this case, HPRC may assist in the procurement and billing of other group members as well as doing the installation.

Broad Interest

HPRC will consider acquiring and supporting software packages that have broad interest among our users. Full support from HPRC will depend on the cost of the package and our ability to comply with any restrictive licensing conditions.

Restricted Software

By policy, it is prohibited to use any of HPRC's resources in any manner that violates the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR) or the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR). It is relevant in this regard to be aware that HPRC employs analysts who are foreign, nonresident, nationals and who have root-access privileges to all files and data.

By logging onto this system, you specifically commit to abide by the above restrictions.

Use of software and/or data that is restricted under EAR and/or ITAR may be permitted on TACC's Lonestar cluster, provided this is disclosed in the application process to both HPRC and UT/TACC.

For more information, consult the Texas A&M Export Controls Resources at the Division of Research website.