AC3 Atlantic Canada Computing Consortium Mark Whitmore Memorial University of Newfoundland

Founding 1999 Memorial-based CFI project Memorial, UPEI, UNB, St. Francis-Xavier Memorial center + remote development systems

Statement of Intent on HPC Atlantic Canada Computing Consortium: AC3 DRAFT August 29, 1999 MUN, UPEI, St. F-X and UNB agree to work together with the general goal of developing a research infrastructure in HPC and visualization for the benefit of the Atlantic Canada research community, within the overall framework of C3.ca. We intend to:

Cooperate in the establishment of HPC infrastructure, including CFI-related funds and future applications to the CFI Develop policies of sharing, bartering and otherwise providing access to HPC resources, including hardware and human Pursue cooperative offerings of advanced training and grad level courses in the computational science and HPC Establish an advisory board with one rep. From each university and other organizations to carry out these intentions

AC3 Membership Memorial, UNB, St FX, UPEI NRC –Institute for Marine Dynamics (St. John’s) –Institute for Marine Biosciences (Halifax) Dalhousie, U. de Moncton, Saint Mary’s …

Current Systems Memorial CVC –28 cpu Onyx 3400 with visualization, 5 Octane SE’s, new central area, 3 remote platforms, DEC Alpha 4100 –NRC, Operation ONLINE, 3 other universities University of New Brunswick: ACRL –16 cpu IBM SP Dalhousie –8 cpu IBM SP Saint Mary’s –10 cpu SUN Enterprise 4500

Sample Research Interests Soft Matter Condensed Matter Physics –Memorial, Dalhousie, UPEI, St FX Oceanography –Memorial (2 campuses), Dalhousie CFD –NRC, Memorial, Dalhousie, ?? Astronomy and Astrophysics –Saint Mary’s Bioinformatics –UNB, Dalhousie, Genome Atlantic Quantum Chemistry –Everywhere – there’s no escape

Challenges Geography –We’re big! –Four provinces, two (or three) islands, 12 universities with 14 campuses –Costs of travel, networking Money –No match for CFI, (no OIT or ORDCF, little industry) –Operating funds –Renewal funds Personnel – critical masses Provincial mandates

Needs and Opportunities Operating support Complementary systems and software Community of technical people (TASP) Regional applications (CFI, AIF-like)? Virendra, do we have something here?? Ease of access to national and international systems Organizational structure that addresses the needs of researchers for access to and effective use of HPC resources as the top priority Local systems for HQP development