Canada's most powerful academic supercomputer launched at SFU

Apr 21 2017, 5:37 am

Canada’s most powerful academic supercomputer, Cedar, launched at the  SFU Burnaby Campus on April 20.

The new advanced research computing system (ARC) will give researchers the ability to collect, analyze, and work with extremely large volumes of data.

The supercomputer has a whopping five petabyte parallel storage system. If you’re wondering one petabyte is equivalent 13.3 years of HD-TV video.

Cedar will give SFU a global advantage with its computer systems.

“SFU is a distinct leader in ARC and Cedar will place us in the world’s top 100 supercomputer installations,” said Joy Johnson, SFU’s vice-president, research and international, in a release.

“We are honoured to be one of the four new national advanced research computing (ARC) systems that will provide Canadian researchers access to the latest technology and expertise they need to make transformative scientific discoveries.”

Researchers working in tech, medicine, and artificial intelligence will be able to use Cedar to make unprecedented advancements in the work they do.

There are currently 27 data centres and 50 older legacy systems in Canada that will be  merged into five to ten data centres by the end of 2018.

Cedar is so powerful, that it has more computational power than all of the 50 legacy systems combined.

See also
DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

+ Tech
ADVERTISEMENT