SBCC

Last edited on November 26, 2025

The Single-Board Cluster Competition, or SBCC for short, is an annual competition to get the most performance out of limited hardware. It is hosted by the Super Computing Club (not to be confused with the Aalborg Supercomputer Club) at the San Diego Supercomputing Center, and consists of teams representing various universities.

It has been held in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Details

Each team must construct a cluster computer out of single-board computers. The hardware must follow two basic rules:

  • It may not cost more than 6000 USD in total, usually determined by MSRP.
  • It may not consume more than 250 watts of power during a benchmark.

In addition, Apple Silicon-based hardware is prohibited, as it could easily beat out other options and make the competition uninteresting.

For each competition, an array of applications are selected to measure the performance of each cluster. These include traditional benchmarks, as well as applications benefitting from high performance, such as password cracking, and one mystery application revealed during the competition.

The competition itself lasts for a period of 3 days, during which all benchmarking must take place. The first day is dedicated to setup, and the second and third days to running benchmarks. The mystery application is revealed on the second day. The results are revealed at the end of the third day.

Remote participation

While most teams participate physically at the San Diego Supercomputing Center, the Supercomputer Club participated remotely for the 2024 and 2025 competitions, due to budget constraints. For this, a live camera feed was set up from the club’s room to show that no activities were happening outside of permitted hours. Additionally, a live camera feed displayed the output of a wattmeter to verifiably prove that the power limit was not exceeded during any benchmarks.

Remote participation has proven a challenge regarding the 9-hour time zone difference between California and Denmark. Where each day begins at 8:00 and ends at 17:00 in California time, this corresponds to 17:00 and 2:00 past midnight Denmark time. This has necessitated special treatment from the competition, such that all relevant times in the schedule are shifted accordingly to allow for daytime participation.