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When in 2007 a study on e-research in Flanders (Belgium) identified, among other things, the need for more support and infrastructure for grid and high-performance computing, the government established the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC, see insert below). The VSC project brings together the five Flemish university associations to align and integrate their existing supercomputer infrastructure, to make their expertise available to the public and private funded research and to develop a competitive grid and HPC infrastructure available to all researchers in Flanders by 2010. The Flemish universities have been tuning their efforts since then to build a grid of super computers clustering the existing super computers on different locations and providing connectivity for the new supercomputer planned for 2010.
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Arcadiz Telecom provides last mile connectivity for Flemish Supercomputing Centre
Flemish Supercomputing Centre to provide excellent user support for all aspects of high-performance computing
When in 2007 a study on e-research in Flanders (Belgium) identified, among other things, the need for more support and infrastructure for grid and high-performance computing, the government established the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC, see insert below). The VSC project brings together the five Flemish university associations to align and integrate their existing supercomputer infrastructure, to make their expertise available to the public and private funded research and to develop a competitive grid and HPC infrastructure available to all researchers in Flanders by 2010. The Flemish universities have been tuning their efforts since then to build a grid of super computers clustering the existing super computers on different locations and providing connectivity for the new supercomputer planned for 2010.
Ambitious computing goals
The VSC aims to make more computational power and more storage capacity available to more researchers in all Flemish associations, independent research institutes and industry.
Today the total computing power of the VSC supercomputers is around 50 Tflops, which required further integration of the existing clusters of the universities involved. The goals for 2010 are even more ambitious: the computing power of the clusters of the universities should be doubled, while the VSC plans to install an additional 180Tflops cluster.
The network builds upon the BELNET lightpaths, with 10G connectivity between the Universities of Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp and Leuven. However, in the case of Antwerp and Ghent, the PoP of Belgian NREN Belnet was not located at the supercomputer’s location, thus requiring a local loop. Arcadiz Telecom was selected both by the university of Antwerp and Ghent to provide the 10G last-mile technology with a DWDM system.
“We are happy to confirm our choice of Arcadiz Telecom as our transport solutions provider for this 10G connectivity. “Says Wim Holemans from Network Departement at the University of Antwerp “We are pleased with the added value that Arcadiz telecom brings in both network consultancy and 24x7 first line maintenance.”
With the investments in capacity and capability computing in place, and with a continued extra investment of the associations hosting the infrastructure, the VSC will be able to guarantee a steady growth characterized by both a doubling of the total capacity computer power and a Top500 supercomputer over many years.
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Flemish Supercomputer Centre ( “Vlaams Supercomputer Centrum” - VSC).
Supercomputing is one of the key technologies of the 21st century and drives not only exact sciences but also applied and engineering sciences as well as business competitiveness. Now that the global HPC community has officially entered a new realm — a supercomputer with a peak performance of more than 1 PFlops (one quadrillion floating point operations per second) — the VSC will enable Flanders to make up its arrears. The VSC is a consortium of the five Flemish associations and aims to make more computational power and more storage capacity available to more researchers in all Flemish associations (K.U.Leuven Association, Ghent University Association, Antwerp University Association, Universitaire Associatie Brussel, and Associatie Universiteit-Hogescholen Limburg), independent research institutes and industry; to provide excellent user support for all aspects of HPC and technical leadership on HPC, a forum for cross-fertilization and a guiding framework to enable high(er)-level research and productivity. The VSC infrastructure will enable innovative research, stimulate the economic activity in Flanders and strengthen the international competitiveness of the Flemish industry.
About University of Antwerp
The University of Antwerp (UA) is characterised by its high standards in education, internationally competitive research and entrepreneurial approach. It was founded in 2003 after the merger of the three universities that were previously known as RUCA, UFSIA and UIA, the university's roots go back to 1852. The University of Antwerp has approximately 11.000 students, which makes it the third largest university in Flanders. Over 1.000 of these students - exchange students not included - are from foreign countries, with a majority of EU countries. In order to face the challenges posed by the internationalization of European education and research, the University is part of the Antwerp University Association (AUHA).
About Arcadiz Telecom
Arcadiz Telecom is a privately owned company specialising in creative solutions and services for the carrier, Utilities and large enterprise marketplace.
Arcadiz Telecom provides systems for efficient transmission, access and switching over fiber and wide area networks. The company also offers consultancy services to carriers and large enterprises to provide help with network design, tailored solutions and conformance testing.
Arcadiz Telecom offers a broad range of advanced solutions, ranging from fibre optic transmission solutions, over solutions for utilities and mobile operators to digital broadcast video transmission for cable operators and VoIP solutions for alternative operators.
Arcadiz Telecom headquarters are based in Belgium and the company has partners in Eastern Europe and the former Russian states.
For more information about Arcadiz Telecom, please visit www.arcadiz.com or contact:
Marc Vandeputte
Marketing and Business Development Manager Arcadiz Telecom
Telephone: +32 16 392 692
Email: marc.vandeputte@arcadiz.com