Sharcnet

About Sharcnet

Sharcnet is a high-performance computing (HPC) service provider located in the Old North neighbourhood of London, Ontario. It serves a broad community of researchers in academia and the private sector, providing the infrastructure and support necessary to tackle large-scale computational problems. The organization operates as a consortium of 19 academic partners, including 14 universities and 4 colleges, as well as a research institute. The organization offers extensive computing resources, including a massive general-purpose cluster at the University of Waterloo featuring 136,000 cores, 288 GPUs, and nodes with up to 6TB of memory. Users can access a GitLab instance for version control and collaboration, as well as a library of over 180 webinar recordings. Sharcnet also provides dedicated programming support for projects with exceptional potential, particularly those from disciplines that are not traditional users of HPC. These services are supported by a team of high-performance computing consultants with expertise in fields such as computational chemistry, astrophysics, bioinformatics, and numerical analysis. Formally established in June 2001, Sharcnet was created by a group of researchers from McMaster University, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Guelph. Their goal was to build an "HPC culture" in Ontario by creating a community of skilled researchers to support growing demands for leading hardware resources. The organization has grown significantly since its founding, expanding its partnership to include institutions such as Brock University, York University, and Sheridan College. Its development has been supported by various grants and industrial partners, including Hewlett Packard, Bell Canada, and Nortel Networks.