HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY INFORMATION INITIATIVE CENTER

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OVERVIEW
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History

The Hokkaido University Information Initiative Center (IIC) was established on April 1, 2003, as a national joint usage/research facility. It was created as a result of the discontinuation and conversion of the Large-scale Computer Center and the Center for Information and Multimedia Studies, with the aim of developing and operating R&D and information infrastructure to promote computerization and more advanced educational research, as well as implementing and supporting the use of information media in education. The circumstances leading to the establishment of the IIC are outlined below.

(1) Evolution of the Large-scale Computer Center

August 1962
Hokkaido University Computation Center is established.
October 1969
First issue of the Center’s newsletter is released.
April 1970
Hokkaido University Large-scale Computer Center is established. It occupies a total building floor space of 3,494 m2. It is launched with three divisions—R&D, Joint Use, and Administration. The first director of the center is Prof. Hajime Tanaka.
May 1970
FACOM230-60 computing system is installed (main memory 160 kB). Closed batch processing, card input, line printer output, and program processing in 100 kB units commence.
June 1970
Computing services are launched.
September 1970
Center opening ceremony is held.
August 1971
FACOM230-25 subsystem is installed.
April 1972
Prof. Yoshimasa Nakamaru is appointed director of the center.
April 1973
Prof. Ryoichi Miura is appointed director of the center.
November 1974
FACOM230-75 system is installed (main memory 384 kB). Trial of TSS, card input and line printer go to open architecture.
April 1975
Prof. Chiyoshi Yoshimoto is appointed director of the center.
April 1976
Prof. Kimio Ohno is appointed director of the center.
April 1976
PANAFACOM U-300 is installed as subsystem.
March 1977
PANAFACOM U-200 is installed as subsystem for media conversion processing.
December 1977
Terminal connection service based on switching circuit is started.
October 1979
HITAC M-180×2 and M-180×1 systems are installed (main memory 22 MB). Open input and output processing, TSS processing from terminals in the center, file-based computational processing, and program processing in MB units are started, and statistical package SAS is adopted. Organization expands to four divisions—R&D Division, Joint Use Division, Administration Division, and Operational Research Division.
December 1979
Building extension is completed (1 floor below and 2 floors above ground, total 780 m2)
May 1980
HITAC M-200H, M-180×2 systems are installed (main memory 26 MB)
June 1980
Ceremony to mark 10th anniversary of the center’s establishment is held, 10th anniversary edition of newsletter is issued.
August 1980
HITAC M-200H×2, M-180×1 systems are installed (main memory 26 MB)
October 1980
HOSOS (Hokudai Computing Center Soudan System) is launched.
October 1981
Inter-large-scale computer center network services commence (DDX packet network).
April 1982
Prof. Kuniichi Nagata is appointed director of the center.
July 1983
HITAC M-280H×2, M-200H×1 systems are installed (main memory 64 MB). Program processing in 10 MB units commences.
December 1983
Automated operation system starts running.
August 1985
Hokkaido (University) Information NEtwork System (HINES) is coined.
April 1986
Large-scale Computer Center shared use number system is started. Prof. Ryozaburo Tagawa is appointed director of the center.
August 1986
HITAC M-680H and S-810/10 supercomputer systems are installed (main memory 256 MB)
May 1987
The center is restructured. Joint Use Division and Operational Research Division are integrated into the R&D Division, leaving only two divisions—R&D Division and Administration Division.
October 1987
HITAC M-682H and S-810/10 supercomputer systems are installed (main memory 256 MB).
February 1988
Connection to Science Information NETwork (SINET) commences.
February 1989
HITAC M-682H and S-820/80 systems are installed (main memory 320 MB). Supercomputers are updated through international procurement procedures. Program processing in 100 MB units commences.
April 1989
Online bulletin board HBOARD is released.
May 1989
Construction of HINES Phase 1 system starts.
January 1990
HGUIDE guide system for center use is released.
March 1990
HINES and supercomputer system are connected. TSS processing from research lab terminals.
April 1990
Prof. Jin Yoshimura is appointed director of the center.
March 1991
HINES connects Hakodate and Sapporo campuses at 64 kbps. HINES launch ceremony is held.
March 1993
HITAC M-880/210 and S-820/80 systems are installed (main memory 512 MB).
September 1993
SINET nodes are relocated to Large-scale Computer Center from facilities.
April 1994
Prof. Koji Tochinai is appointed director of the center.
January 1995
HITAC M-880/210 and S-820/80 systems are installed (main memory 2,304 MB).
December 1995
Dial-up IP connection services are offered to public.
March 1996
Automatic operation control (AOC) devices start operation. HINES Phase 2 system (ATM network) is completed.
April 1996
Internet-based consultation service is started, by adding program consultations and center use consultations to user feedback via e-mail (hsay).
October 1996
Trial implementation of flat-rate system for general computer use charges.
April 1997
FDDI is adopted for HIX SINET node connections.
March 1998
HITACHI MP5800/160 system is installed (main memory 256 MB). SUN UltraEnterprise4000 system is installed (main memory 2 GB).
April 1998
The charge system based on basic service charge (¥12,000 per year) and additional service charges commence. Prof. Eiichi Miyamoto is appointed director of the center.
July 1999
HINES connection between Hakodate and Sapporo campuses is upgraded to ATM-3 Mbps.
October 1999
Backup service is launched.
January 2000
HITACHI SR8000 system is installed (main memory 320 GB). HP Exemplar V2500 system is installed (main memory 24 GB).
March 2000
HINES connection between Hakodate and Sapporo campuses is upgraded to ATM-20 Mbps.
April 2000
Prof. Yukinori Kakazu is appointed director of the center.
March 2002
HITACHI 9000V superdome system is installed (main memory 64 GB).

(2) Evolution of the Center for Information and Multimedia Studies

April 1979
The Information Processing Center is established (1 assistant professor, 2 academic staff, 1 technician, 1 secretary). Prof. Hajime Tanaka is appointed as first director of the center. Total building floor space is 609 m2. The computer system is a Hitachi HITAC M-170. An educational information system is installed. There are 20 TSS terminals, 25 card punch machines, and 25 educational video systems.
December 1979
Total building floor space reaches 1,256 m2.
April 1982
HITAC M-180 system is installed. Educational information system is updated. Total number of TSS terminals reaches 50.
April 1983
1 academic staff becomes an assistant.
February 1984
Educational information system is updated. Total number of TSS terminals reaches 150 (50 are distributed outside of the center), and 10 PCs are newly added.
April 1984
One more assistant is hired.
January 1985
HITAC M-200 system is installed.
April 1985
One more technician is hired.
September 1985
Educational information system is updated. Total number of TSS terminals reaches 180.
January 1986
Building enlarged to total floor space of 1,857 m2.
August 1987
HITAC M-280H system is installed. Educational information system is updated. Total number of PC terminals reaches 254 (80 are distributed outside of the center).
April 1988
Prof. Shoji Kitajima is appointed director of the center.
March 1989
Increase in rental charge for electronic computers. HITAC M-680H system is installed. Total number of terminals reaches 320 (180 are distributed outside of the center). 10 UNIX workstations are installed and card punch machines are eliminated.
April 1990
Prof. Haruhisa Shirahama is appointed director of the center.
December 1992
Information Processing Education Workshop (sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and Hokkaido University)
March 1993
Educational information system is updated. Total number of PC terminals reaches 384 (250 are distributed outside of the center). 76 UNIX workstations (21 are distributed outside of the center). 20 notebook PCs are added.
October 1993
Use of the Internet (e-mail, WWW, etc.) starts.
April 1994
Prof. Yoichi Shiozaki is appointed director of the center.
March 1993
Educational information system is updated. Mainframe computers for general use are eliminated and server/client systems are installed. 88 UNIX servers (51 are distributed outside of the center), 660 client PCs (395 are distributed outside of the center).
April 1999
The Information Processing Education Center is discontinued and converted to establish the Center for Information and Multimedia Studies. The new center focuses on four fields: Digital Media Science Fundamentals, Digital Media Systems, Digital Media Science Applications, and International Communication (4 professors, 3 assistant professors, 4 assistants, 2 technicians, 2 secretaries). Prof. Kiyohiko Itoh is appointed as the first director of the center.
February 2000
A temporary teaching block of floor space 292 m2 is built.
March 2000
Computer rental charge increases. Educational information system is updated. A server/client system consisting of 1,254 client PCs (902 are distributed outside of the center) is installed.
April 2001
Prof. Yoshiharu Sato is appointed director of the center.

(3) Evolution of the Information Initiative Center

April 2003
The Large-scale Computer Center and Center for Information and Multimedia Studies are discontinued and converted to establish the Information Initiative Center (IIC). Prof. Mitsuo Wada was appointed the first director of the center.
April 2003
An opening ceremony is held.
August 2003
Construction of HINES Phase 3 is completed.
November 2003
The 2003 Information Processing Education Workshop (sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and Hokkaido University).
November 2003
Commemorative ceremony, commemorative lectures, etc., are held.
February 2004
The first issue of the Information Initiative Center’ Supercomputing System News (iiC-HPC News) is published.
April 2004
Prof. Yuri Nishihori and Prof. Yoshiaki Takai are appointed deputy directors of the center.
March 2005
Educational information system is updated. A client/server system consisting of 1,254 PCs (1,018 are distributed outside of the center) is installed. Education and Learning Management System (ELMS) is introduced.
April 2005
Prof. Tsuyoshi Yamamoto is appointed director of the center.
January 2006
Supercomputer system is updated. HITACHI SR11000 model K1 (theoretical peak performance 5.4 TFLOPS, main memory capacity 5 TB), external magnetic disk system (total capacity 100 TB/RAID5) and 3D visualization system are introduced.
February 2007
External evaluation is conducted.
March 2007
General-purpose computer system is updated. 150 PC servers, external magnetic disk system (total capacity 110 TB/RAID5), and 22 user terminals are introduced.
April 2007
Administration and business functions of Information Initiative Center are relocated to the Information Infrastructure Department of the Planning Division.
March 2009
Campus network system is updated. Five department nodes and 390 L2 switches are introduced.
June 2009
The center earns certification as a network-type “Joint Usage/Research Center for Interdisciplinary Large-scale Information Infrastructures” (JHPCN) (April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2016).
July 2009
Academic exchange agreement is concluded with the Graduate School of Education of Korea University (South Korea).
March 2010
Educational information system is updated. Server/client system consisting of 1,200 client PCs (995 are distributed outside of the center) is installed. Education and Learning Management System (ELMS) is updated. A video conference system is set up in the Beijing office of the university.
July 2010
A research agreement is concluded with the National Institute of Informatics and Tokyo Institute of Technology for large-scale demonstration experiments with next-generation green supercomputers.
October 2010
It is decided to form a consortium organization (a body of computing resource providers) in preparation to guide the construction of innovative “high performance computing infrastructure” (HPCI).
April 2011
Prof. Yoshiaki Takai is appointed director of the center. Prof. Masahiro Mizuta and Prof. Izumi Fuse are appointed deputy directors of the center.
April 2011
Administrative tasks of the Information Initiative Center are relocated to the Information Promotion Department of the Information Environment Promotion Headquarters.
July 2011
An academic exchange agreement is concluded with the College of Arts of Hansung University (South Korea).
November 2011
Supercomputer systems and general-purpose computer systems are updated to be integrated into “high-performance inter-cloud Interdisciplinary Large-scale Computer System” system. A supercomputer system (HITACHI SR16000 model M1), cloud system (HITACHI BladeSymphony BS2000), external magnetic disk system, visualization systems and user terminals are introduced.
September 2012
High Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI) service is started.
April 2013
Prof. Izumi Fuse and Prof. Masaharu Munetomo are appointed deputy directors of the center.
November 2013
A ceremony and commemorative lectures are held to commemorate 10th anniversary of the IIC’s establishment.
March 2014
Petabyte-class integrated cloud storage for data science is introduced.
March 2015
Education and Learning Management System (ELMS) is updated.
March 2015
Campus network system is updated. 7 node routers and 612 L2 switches are introduced.
April 2015
Prof. Masaharu Munetomo is appointed deputy director.
October 2015
Administration of Education and Learning Management System (ELMS) is transferred to the Center for Open Education, a body for promoting high-school education.
October 2015
Restructuring leads to increase in research departments from 4 to 6.
October 2015
Cyber Security Center is established. Prof. Hiroyuki Minami is appointed the first director of the center.
January 2016
Certification of the center as a network-type “Joint Usage/Research Center for Interdisciplinary Large-scale Information Infrastructures” (JHPCN) is renewed (April 2016 to March 31, 2019)
April 2016
Administration of IIC is transferred to the ICT Planning Division of the General Affairs and Planning Department.
April 2017
Prof. Masaharu Munemoto and Prof. Takeshi Iwashita are appointed as deputy directors of the center.
December 2018
Repair work is completed for North Building elevators and toilets on all floors.
December 2018
Interdisciplinary Large-scale Computer System is updated (with FUJITSU PRIMERGY server). Supercomputer system comprises a Grand Chariot (subsystem A, CX400), and Polaire (subsystem B, CX600), etc., and boasts a total computational performance of 4 PFLOPS. Servers are installed at the University of Tokyo, Osaka University and Kyushu University, and an inter-cloud system that connects them through SINET5 is introduced.
January 2019
A ceremony to commemorate the start of operation of the new Interdisciplinary Large-scale Computer System is held.
April 2019
Prof. Masaharu Munemoto is appointed director of the center. Prof. Takeshi Iwashita is appointed deputy directors of the center.
November 2019
External evaluation is conducted.
December 2019
AI-compatible advanced computer system introduced.
August 2020
ICT Planning and Technical Advisory Office established.
March 2021
Campus network system is updated. 26 node routers and 667 L2 switches are introduced.
October 2021
Certification of the center as a network-type “Joint Usage/Research Center for Interdisciplinary Large-scale Information Infrastructures” (JHPCN) is renewed. (April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2028)
April 2022
Office of Digital Transformation is established in the ICT Planning Division of the General Affairs and Planning Department.