System Requirements¶

The requirements and details below apply to QuantumATK Y-2026.03.

QuantumATK should run well on any modern Windows or Linux-based system capable of running `x86-64-v3 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Microarchitecture_levels>`__ binaries. Note that the QuantumATK simulation engines and the NanoLab GUI both run fine on a laptop, but simulating or visualizing complex systems with many atoms can consume a large amount of computational or graphical resources.
The ideal platform for running larger simulations is a cluster or a powerful workstation. Most QuantumATK simulations run best if executed in parallel. QuantumATK can parallelize over multiple cores (using both MPI and threading) and over multiple nodes (using MPI). Note that MPI parallelization and multicore threading is available with both the Windows and Linux versions of QuantumATK.
The NanoLab graphical interface runs best on a machine with a graphics card with hardware acceleration. A dedicated card from e.g. NVIDIA or AMD is best for proper 3D graphics performance, but also integrated cards like Intel HD work fine, as long as the corresponding vendor drivers are installed. On Linux, software-rendering using Mesa drivers will work, but can lead to sub-optimal performance in the Builder tools.

If QuantumATK fails to run on your system, it is likely that a similar problem has already been reported and solved. Try to search in older posts or write about your own problem on the Forum, with as many details as possible, including the exact software version (for Linux, also the exact distribution) and any error messages that appear, and we will try to find a solution. Enterprise customer support is available at Synopsys’s SolveNetPlus.

Detailed Requirements¶

CPU¶

Any modern system capable of running x86-64-v3 binaries should be able to run QuantumATK. As a rule of thumb, systems with CPUs release after 2013 should work fine. For Intel CPUs this means Haswell microarchitecture or later, and for AMD CPUs this means Excavator microarchitecture or later. Multiple CPU cores (4+) are recommended for a pleasant user experience and for running any simulations.

Memory¶

The memory required to run a QuantumATK simulation depends very strongly on simulation parameters and the system treated. For large-scale production simulations on a cluster or workstation, we recommend at least 8 to 16 GB memory per MPI-process.

Hard Drive Space¶

The QuantumATK package itself requires about 10 GB of free space on disk. A configuration folder with examples is created in the user’s home directory, it is therefore recommended to have at least 1 GB of free space available in the corresponding disk. Temporary files are created while simulations are running, and the final data files can require substantial amounts of disk space as well. Take this into account when planning simulations.

Graphics¶

NanoLab relies on OpenGL and shader technology for fast rendering of 3D graphics, and optimal graphics performance requires a hardware accelerated OpenGL driver, using either a dedicated GPU or a motherboard-integrated card. Software-emulated OpenGL may be also be used to run NanoLab, but 3D performance will be worse in most cases.

The minimal required version of OpenGL (GLSL) for using shaders is 2.1 (1.20).
Use vendor drivers (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, etc.) for optimum shader support.
Intel Iris XE integrated graphics cards are known to have issues running QuantumATK. See Graphics in QuantumATK for suggested solutions.

For more information on graphics settings in QuantumATK, see Graphics in QuantumATK.

For more info on running QuantumATK in virtual or remote machines, see Running QuantumATK on a Virtual Machine.

Network¶

Running QuantumATK requires that the usual networking stack is installed and enabled. By default, the SCL license system used by QuantumATK must be allowed to receive incoming connections on port 27020 (TCP+UDP). On Windows, the user will normally be asked to accept this exception to the Windows firewall rules the first time the application is launched, but if specific firewall software is used, you may need to create the rules manually. The latter may also be the case on Linux, especially if enhanced security features are enabled. QuantumATK and SCL also communicate through a second port, which by default is chosen dynamically for each session. To ease firewall configuration, this additional port may also be manually specified.

Parallel Execution¶

Both the Linux and Windows versions of QuantumATK are compiled against the Intel MPI library and support OpenMP. Running QuantumATK in parallel should preferentially be done using the Intel mpiexec.hydra binary that is shipped with the software. Alternatively, we have successfully tested parallel operation under

You can try to use more modern Intel MPI libraries and executables installed in your cluster environment. Usually, a cluster provides a module loading system for this purpose.

GPU Acceleration¶

QuantumATK supports GPU acceleration via CUDA. The following requirements apply:

GPU Models: NVIDIA GPUs with compute capability 7.0 or higher.
Driver: Compatible with CUDA 12.9+ (preferred, optimal). Compatible with CUDA 12.2 (some features need to run with atkpython_gpu_compat).
Operating System: Linux (Windows is not supported).

QuantumATK has been tested on V100, A100 and H100 GPUs. Other NVIDIA GPUs with compute capability 7.0 or higher should also work, but for best performance GPUs with FP64 capability are recommended.

Specific Platform Requirements¶

In general, QuantumATK follows the software foundation and Qualified System Configuration (QSC) to which all Synopsys products adhere. The current QSC specification can be found on the Synopsys web page. The Y-2026.03 release of QuantumATK follows the QSC-Y foundation.

Windows¶

QuantumATK has been successfully tested on 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows 10 and 11.

Note

Windows 7 is no longer supported.

It is not possible to run a terminal-based QuantumATK session via a remote network connection.

Linux¶

The QSC-Y specifications linked above guarantee the support of the following OS:

AlmaLinux 8.4+; 9.1+
Rocky Linux 8.4+; 9.1+
Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.4+; 9.1+
Suse Linux Enterprise Server 15-SP3+

Additionally, QuantumATK typically runs on all modern Linux distributions without problems, provided all the latest updates are installed, and has been successfully tested on the following popular Linux distributions:

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS

Note

Long term support (LTS) versions are always recommended.

The QuantumATK package is fully self-contained, and in general you should not need to install any additional libraries. However, some required libraries may not be present by default on all Linux installations. These may typically be installed using the system package manager.

Distribution specific installation steps¶

AlmaLinux 8.4 / RHEL 8.4 / SLES 15.3

On a completely unpatched, default desktop installation of AlmaLinux 8.4 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3, the program should work with no additional steps required.

Troubleshooting xcb related startup errors

In case of any error related to xcb, such as:

qt.qpa.plugin: Could not find the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "/path/to/libraries"
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc.

the problem is probably a missing dependency of the xcb plugin of Qt. You can identify the missing binary by starting QuantumATK from command line with an additional environment variable:

QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=3 /path/to/installation/bin/quantumatk

On Ubuntu 22.04 systems, for example, the missing library could be xinerama (libxcb-xinerama.so.0), which is available through the official package libxcb-xinerama0.

LIBC version¶

Make sure your Linux system has glibc 2.28 or later available.