Nokia and Hypertec Group have deployed the Nibi supercomputer at the University of Waterloo, delivering a new high-performance computing platform for SHARCNET that expands Canada’s national research infrastructure across health, climate science, engineering, and AI. Integrated into the SHARCNET environment, Nibi is designed to support more than 4,000 researchers annually across 19 academic partner institutions, reinforcing SHARCNET’s role as the country’s largest HPC consortium by number of members.
The project brings together Nokia’s data center fabric and IP networking with Hypertec’s AI-HPC system architecture, integration, and immersion-cooling capabilities. Hypertec acted as system architect and prime integrator, while Nokia supplied the Ethernet-based networking fabric underpinning the cluster. The deployment marks Nokia’s first implementation of this class of AI-HPC data center networking in North America and highlights Canada’s growing ability to design and operate sovereign, globally competitive research infrastructure.
Nibi also strengthens Nokia’s long-standing presence in Canada, following recent investments such as the expansion of its Ottawa R&D campus. The system underscores a broader shift in academic supercomputing toward Ethernet-based interconnects optimized for AI and mixed HPC workloads, pairing scalable networking with advanced cooling and system-level design to meet rising power density and performance demands.
- Deployed at the University of Waterloo and integrated into SHARCNET’s national HPC environment
- Supports more than 4,000 researchers annually across 19 Canadian academic institutions
- First North American deployment of this class of Nokia AI-HPC data center networking
- Ethernet-based interconnect replaces traditional HPC fabrics for scalability and flexibility
- Hypertec served as system architect and prime integrator, including immersion cooling
- Designed to accelerate research in health, climate science, engineering, and AI
“With the Nibi supercomputer, we made the move to an Ethernet-based interconnect, and the combined solution delivered by Hypertec and Nokia proved to be a perfect fit. Nokia’s performance networking combined with Hypertec’s system integration expertise gives our research community the scalability, reliability, and performance needed to support a wide range of demanding workloads.” — John Morton, Director of Technology at SHARCNET
