Canada’s fastest academic supercomputer is now online at SFU after $80m upgrades

(Press-News.org) Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus is once again home to Canada’s most powerful academic supercomputer, following the installation of a new system, named Fir. The new Fir system replaces the Cedar supercomputer, housed at the Cedar Supercomputing Centre (the Centre) at SFU. Fir is ranked number 78 in the TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, the only Canadian system in the top 100 worldwide.

“The new Fir supercomputer represents a much needed, major upgrade to the national Canadian computing infrastructure,” says Dugan O’Neil, SFU’s Vice President Research and Innovation. “The growing importance of data for research in all types of academia and in industry continues to drive demand for high-performance computing, and we are meeting that need. Fir will drive research across Canada and I have no doubt it will facilitate significant advances in a wide range of fields in the coming years.” 

The new Fir supercomputing system was made possible through the award of more than $80 million in funding. The combined investment includes $40,946,000 from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance), $24,567,600 from the Province of British Columbia, through the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) and more than $15 million in contributions from partners. The Alliance also contributed an additional $248,000 to fund three research-support positions.

"We are incredibly proud to see the Fir supercomputer at Simon Fraser University become fully operational,” says George Ross, CEO of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. “This is a monumental step forward for Canadian research, providing a powerful resource that will empower our academic community to tackle complex challenges."

The Fir system is accessible by researchers across Canada, empowering innovators to solve complex challenges at unprecedented speed and scale, driving new solutions and discoveries. While it is housed at SFU, the Cedar Supercomputing Centre supports research and collaboration among scholars and industry partners across the country. The Centre has more than 17,000 users, approximately 70% of whom are located outside B.C.

Located in B.C. and powered by clean energy, the Centre hosts Fir, which supports tasks that demand significant computational power, including GPU-intensive model training, simulation, and large-scale deployment. Fir allows users to harness world-class AI infrastructure, while safeguarding Canadian sovereignty, security and sustainability.

“Having one of the world’s most powerful computers in B.C. creates huge potential for researchers in the tech, life sciences, and innovation space to contribute to our province being the economic driver for the country,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth.

“By helping attract and retain top academics, researchers, and students, Fir is a natural fit with B.C.’s homegrown talent, it's commitment to innovation and our approach to growing a world-leading start-up ecosystem that creates good jobs for people.”

One of the SFU scholars whose research relies on the Fir supercomputer’s processing power is Fiona Brinkman, distinguished professor of molecular biology & biochemistry with cross appointments in the School of Computing Science and Faculty of Health Sciences.

Brinkman has developed and maintained multiple world-class microbial genomics bioinformatics tools, expanding and advising national and international data integration efforts to better monitor population health and infectious disease. Her work supports and encourages collaboration between government, the private sector and academics across a variety of fields, and in 2025 she was recognized for her work with the Genome British Columbia Award for Scientific Excellence from Life Sciences BC.

In 2024 she led the landmark 500-author publication of the Canadian VirusSeq Data Portal – the first national microbial sequence database of its kind in Canada, used for real-time infectious disease monitoring and predictive modeling of disease waves. Brinkman is also leading development of CHILDdb – the most diverse collection of health and environment data associated with Canada’s largest longitudinal birth cohort. 

“At a time when we want to capitalize on AI, while carefully protecting the security of Canadian data, this Canadian resource is absolutely critical,” says Brinkman.

“I’m so grateful for its impressive speed and energy efficiency, as we deal with growing datasets to analyze. Fir is supporting research that is identifying efficiencies for our healthcare system that will benefit Canadians and our economy.” 

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