Skip to main content

Compute Providers

Biom supports five compute providers for running scientific models. The system automatically selects the cheapest GPU that meets the model’s VRAM requirements, or you can choose a provider manually. Modal is the default compute provider for all GPU-requiring models.
  • Serverless GPU — no instances to manage, pay only for compute time
  • Auto-scaling — scales to zero when idle
  • GPU selection — system auto-selects cheapest GPU meeting VRAM requirements
  • Cost estimation — estimated cost displayed before execution
See Pricing for GPU rates.

Local Docker

Run models on your own machine using Docker:
  • GPU passthrough — uses nvidia-docker for GPU access
  • GPU detection — auto-detects GPU via nvidia-smi
  • Log streaming — real-time progress updates
  • Configurable resources:
SettingDefault
Memory limit16 GB
CPU limit8 cores
Timeout3600 seconds
Auto-pull imagesOn
Best for: users with local GPU hardware who want to avoid cloud costs.

HPC / SLURM

Submit jobs to your institution’s HPC cluster:
  • SSH connection — connect to cluster head node via SSH
  • Singularity containers — or bare-metal execution (module/conda)
  • SLURM resource specs:
    • Partition selection
    • GPU type (gres)
    • Time limit
    • Memory per node
    • CPUs per task
SettingDefault
Poll interval5 seconds
Max wait time4 hours
SSH connection poolMax 5 connections
  • SFTP file transfer — for clusters without shared filesystems
Best for: researchers with access to institutional HPC resources.

User GPU Server (REST API)

Connect any GPU server that exposes a REST API:
  • Custom endpoint — point to your own server
  • API key auth — Bearer token authentication
  • SSL verification — configurable SSL settings
  • Standard contract/execute and /health endpoints
  • Concurrency — max 10 concurrent jobs (configurable)
Best for: teams with dedicated GPU servers or custom inference endpoints.

HuggingFace Spaces

Run models hosted on HuggingFace Spaces:
  • Gradio client — connects via the Gradio API
  • Public and private — supports token-gated private spaces
  • No GPU management — compute handled by HuggingFace
Best for: leveraging community models hosted on HuggingFace.