SHARCNET is a
consortium
A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...
of universities in
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, that aggregate funding to purchase
supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
systems, which are shared among the members to perform research, rather than individually purchasing smaller systems at each university. It was formed to allow members access to larger, faster, and more modern computer resources than they would otherwise be able to afford, and to retain researchers at their organizations.
SHARCNET is part of the larger
Compute Canada
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientif ...
umbrella. , the fastest computer at SHARCNET according to the
Top 500 list i
Graham which entered the list as the 95th fastest computer in the world with a
High Performance Linpack result of 1,228
TeraFLOPS
Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations.
For such cases, it is a more accurate measu ...
.
History
SHARCNET was originally founded in June, 2001 with seven institutions:
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...
, the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...
,
University of Guelph
The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...
,
University of Windsor
The University of Windsor (UWindsor, U of W, or UWin) is a public university, public research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has approximately 17,500 students. The university was incorporated by ...
,
Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...
,
Fanshawe College
Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology, commonly shortened to Fanshawe College, is a public college in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is partnered with private ILAC International College. One of the largest colleges in Canada, it ha ...
, and
Sheridan College
Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology, is a public polytechnic institute partnered with private Canadian College of Technology and Trades operating campuses ...
. Initial seed funding of C$42.1 million came from government, academic, and industry partners. The universities contributed a total of C$8.5 million, th
Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fundcontributed C$8.4 million,
Canada Foundation for Innovation The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI; , ''FCI'') is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to invest in research facilities and equipment in Canada's universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research in ...
and Ontario Innovation Trust each contributed C$6.6 million,
Compaq Canada contributed C$7 million, while
Quadrics Supercomputing World,
Platform Computing
Platform Computing was a privately held software company primarily known for its job scheduling product, Load Sharing Facility (LSF). It was founded in 1992 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and headquartered in Markham, Ontario with 11 branch offices ...
,
Nortel
Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...
and
Bell Canada
Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...
contributed a total of C$4 million.
SHARCNET was expanded in June 2003 to include the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...
,
Brock University
Brock University is a public university, public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The ...
,
York University
York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...
, and the
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, branded as Ontario Tech University or Ontario Tech, is a public research university located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is located on approximately of land in northe ...
. In December 2005, the partnership grew again with the addition of
Trent University
Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...
,
Laurentian University
Laurentian University (), officially Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Laurentian offers a variety of undergr ...
, and
Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...
. In March 2006,
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...
and the
Ontario College of Art & Design
Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public university, public art school, art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park (neighbourh ...
were added to the consortium.
Nipissing University
Nipissing University is a public university located in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The campus overlooks Lake Nipissing.
History Northeastern University (1960–1967)
The roots of Nipissing University date back to 1947, when residents of North B ...
and
Conestoga College
Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a public college located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
History
In 1967, the college was founded as Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology by the government of Ontar ...
joined in 2008 and 2014 respectively, for a total of 18 academic partners (14 universities, 3 colleges, and a research institute).
The first system from SHARCNET reported on the
Top 500br>
November, 2001 listwa
GreatWhite which was installed at the University of Western Ontario, and entered the list at the #183 spot with an Rmax of 185.3
GigaFLOPS
Floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance in computing, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations.
For such cases, it is a more accurate measur ...
.
This system was notable because it was the fastest civilian system in Canada at the time of installation,
[ and was the first running the ]Quadrics
In mathematics, a quadric or quadric surface is a generalization of conic sections (ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas). In three-dimensional space, quadrics include ellipsoids, paraboloids, and hyperboloids.
More generally, a quadric hyper ...
Elan network on Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
.
References
{{reflist
College and university associations and consortia in Canada
Higher education in Canada