Atlantic
Regional System

Meet Siku, our cluster for regional priorities and industry usage.

Installed in late 2019, ACENET’s Siku (meaning “sea ice” in Inuktitut) cluster was funded in large part by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) with the intention of generating regional economic benefits through industry engagement, while recognizing the important work that ACENET does for academic research in the region. The system is managed in a manner which leads it to be financially partially self-sustaining under a not-for-profit organization model.

The job scheduling priority for Siku is paid industry usage.

Academic researchers may also access the pay-for-use model if they require the same priority as industry.

Siku is not intended to replace academic researcher use of the national infrastructure, but rather to accommodate needs and priorities that cannot be well met by these systems. Atlantic academic researchers have the option to access Siku at no charge with the understanding that paid usage is the priority. To request access, simply email support@ace-net.ca.

Meet Siku:

  • 9000 cores with Intel CPUs
  • NVIDIA GPUs to power AI/Machine Learning projects
  • A high-throughput low-latency EDR Infiniband interconnect
  • A 1.5 PB parallel filesystem with data protected by regular tape back-ups
  • 100 Tflops at peak speed
  • Stable and secure backup system
  • An extensive range of software is available, but you may need to provide your own license if you’re using commercial products.

Technical help  Technical specifications