Simon Fraser University (SFU) and BCNET are pleased to share two major milestones that elevates the research capability for British Columbia and Canada:
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The deployment of SFU’s new high-performance supercomputer, Fir, which is currently ranked #78 in the world.
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A significant upgrade of BCNET’s Advanced Network, now supporting 400 gigabit per second (Gbps) services for post-secondary institutions.
These advancements enhance SFU’s research capabilities and strengthen the collaborative research network that connects BCNET member sites to CANARIE (Canada’s National Research and Education Network) and the world.
Building the Next-Generation Advanced Network
In partnership with BCNET, SFU made strategic investments to help accelerate the rollout of the new Advanced Network services, enabling the university to secure fully redundant 400 Gbps connections to global networks.
“SFU has one of the busiest networks in BC, by way of supporting TRIUMF, the ATLAS project, and being the largest general-purpose host site in the country,” says James Peltier, Director of Research Computing at SFU. “When we had the opportunity to invest in infrastructure upgrades, we built out the system as a whole. Because this project won’t just benefit SFU, it improves capacity and simplifies the network for other institutions across the region.”
BCNET was pleased to work with SFU on this project, as the new Advanced Network forms the backbone for handling the growing scale and complexity of research data. This upgrade ensures that institutions have the bandwidth required for cutting-edge science.
“This is one of the first 400G services provided to a post-secondary institution in Canada,” says Tom Samplonius, Director of Network Services at BCNET, “This 400G link provides SFU with ample capacity for today’s research needs, plus headroom for new work and surge capacity for shorter term projects. Additionally, BCNET delivered the 400G link by disaggregating the typical optical transport and using IP direct over dense-wave-division-multiplexing (DWDM), allowing SFU to cost-effectively add more 400G links in the future.”
A Record-Breaking Data Transfer with the University of Victoria and SFU
One of the first major demonstrations of these upgrades will take place in November during the Supercomputing 2025 conference in St. Louis. The University of Victoria is preparing a 1.2 terabyte-per-second data transfer demonstration over the BCNET network, an achievement expected to be the first of its kind in Canada’s research and education sector.
“Data isn’t getting any smaller,” says Peltier. “And with more and more connectivity taking place, high-speed networking is critical to make collaborative research possible.”
Canada’s Highest-Ranked Supercomputer
Alongside the Advanced Network upgrades, SFU has officially launched its new high-performance computing (HPC) system, Fir, which earned the number 78 spot on the global TOP500 supercomputer list.
“The big thing that Fir brings is that it is the largest general-purpose supercomputer for research in the country,” says Peltier. “These resources were long overdue, and the research community across Canada will benefit.”
With 165,888 compute cores, 640 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, and 50 petabytes of storage, Fir is built to tackle the most demanding workloads. The system was made possible through funding from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF), SFU, and technology partners Lenovo, DDN, and Vertiv.
The Case for Sovereign Compute
The launch of Fir reflects a broader strategic priority: maintaining Canadian sovereign high-performance computing capacity.
“Canada needs its own sovereign high-performance computing, its own sovereign AI environments, and its own sovereign cloud computing. Otherwise, we risk being at the mercy of foreign providers,” says Peltier. “Without sovereign compute, Canada will lose that capability.”
Locating the system in British Columbia also provides environmental benefits, as it is powered by clean hydroelectricity and designed for high energy efficiency. By using direct liquid cooling, the environmental impact is reduced.
Looking Ahead
As demand for high performance computing grows worldwide, SFU’s advancements and BCNET’s strengthened network infrastructure position the province as a leader in supporting data-intensive research.