History

1983

SAAB invests 33 MSEK in a Cray 1 computer in connection with the JAS Gripen fighter project. Academic usage was allowed via an agreement with the Research Council. The computer served until 1989.

1989

NSC becomes the first supercomputer center in Sweden in connection with the procurement of a Cray X/MP computer for 55 MSEK with means from KAW/SEB. At this time, NSC joins partnership with SAAB. As of today, the activities within this partnership involve mainly computer procurement and parts of the operation. In 1993, the Cray X/MP was replaced by a Cray Y/MP, which, in turn, was followed by a Cray C90 in 1995 that served until 2000. NSC was formed as, and still remains, an independent organization at Linköping University (LiU) under direct control of Rektor.

1996

NSC enters into a partnership with SMHI, which today is governed by contract agreements running over periods of 3 years (the current is for the period 2015-2017) and led through “samverkansmöten” taking place 4-5 times per year. Activities within this partnership have grown to represent a large and important part of NSC’s work, including hardware procurement and operation, development and operation of storage solutions, program code tuning, participation in EU framework proposals and projects, etc.

1997

The first massively parallel computer (a Cray T3E with 272 processors) is installed and it came to be one of the fastest computers in Europe at the time. The computer served until 2003. Common for the early Cray computer installments is that the hardware was physically located at SAAB.

2003

The Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) was formed as a meta-center coordinating high-performance computing (HPC) and data storage investments in Sweden. NSC becomes a partner of SNIC together with LUNARC, C3SE, PDC, UPPMAX, and HPC2N. As a result, means for national investments has increased and amounts today to about 100 MSEK per year. The main funding channel for SNIC is the Swedish Research Council (VR).

In 2003, Monolith becomes the main academic computer resource at NSC and it marks the start of a new era of Linux-based commodity hardware clusters at NSC.

2007

Monolith is replaced by Neolith, and debuts at place 23rd on the TOP500.

2012

Triolith takes over to become the main HPC resource at NSC. This paradigm change involved not only hardware type but also hardware location. NSC has ever since had access to on-campus computer room facilities through generous strategic support from Linköping University. NSC’s main computer rooms today are Hangaren (ca 1 MW in total capacity) and Kärnhuset (currently ca 1 MW capacity with room for expansion).

2015

The Bifrost cluster is installed for use by SMHI and MetCoOp for weather forecasts and research. It enters the TOP500 list in June at rank 203.

Directors

1. Karl-Fredrik Berggren (Oct 1988 - Dec 1989)
2. Lars Eldén (Jan 1990 - Dec 1991)
3. Larsgunnar Nilsson (Jan 1991 - Dec 1997)
4. Anders Ynnerman (Jan 1998 - Jun 2002)
5. Matts Karlsson (Jul 2002 - Dec 2003)
6. Sven Stafström (Jan 2004 - Dec 2007)
7. Bengt Persson (Jan 2008 - Jun 2012)
8. Patrick Norman (Jul 2012 - May 2016)
9. Matts Karlsson (Jun 2016 - )

Computing Systems

Vector, MPP and SMP

Cray 1A, Cray X/MP, Cray Y/MP, Cray C90

Cray T3E, MasPar, Parsytec

SGI 2000, SGI Onyx2, SGI 3000

Clusters

Generation I (1999)

Banan, Alice, Ingvar, Lillwulf, Electra, Euler, Storm

Generation II (2002)

Monolith, Bris, Dayhoff, Maxwell, Match, Stokes, Hydra, Pust, Green, Blixt, Tornado, Dunder, Hyperion, Pavel, Darkstar

Generation III (2007)

Neolith, Smokerings, Bore, Gimle, Skylord, Vagn, Kappa, Matter, Kappa (SMP), Byvind

Generation IV (2012)

Triolith, Krypton/Gamma, Skywalker