A detailed comparison of hardware access, reservation systems, and storage options for users
        
        
            
    - 
        Oct. 21, 2025
    by
- 
        Mark Powers
    
        
            Not sure whether to use bare metal or KVM for your next Chameleon experiment? You're not alone. With KVM's recent addition of H100 GPUs and advance reservations, the choice isn't always obvious. This comprehensive comparison walks you through the practical trade-offs: when you need the isolation of bare metal for accurate benchmarking, when KVM's 6-month leases and resource sharing make more sense, and how to navigate the different storage and networking options. Make informed infrastructure decisions that accelerate your research.
        
     
    
    
        
    
    
        
            This month we have some exciting updates to Trovi’s dashboard, support for 4xGPU instances on KVM@TACC, improvements to cc-snapshot, and a new webinar series!
        
     
    
    
        
    
        
        
            Bioacoustics, Snapshots, and AI: Student Innovations Pushing the Boundary of Science
        
        
            
        
    
    
        
            This summer, three talented students used Chameleon to tackle challenges ranging from wildlife conservation to reproducibility and AI-assisted documentation. Their innovative work earned them spots at the ACM Student Research Competition at SC'25, where they'll present posters on autonomous bioacoustic monitoring, snapshot performance optimization, and intelligent documentation systems. Discover how Hudson Reynolds, Alex Tuecke, Zahra Temori, and Saieda Ali Zada leveraged Chameleon's infrastructure to create impactful solutions.