When the University of Sydney鈥檚 high鈥憄erformance聽computer聽Artemis was shut down for the final time, some researchers felt as if they were saying goodbye to a dear colleague.聽Over a decade, Artemis drove discoveries across disciplines, leaving聽a lasting legacy聽and helping to pave the way for聽a new approach聽to research computing at the University of Sydney.聽
For a moment in late 2025, staff from across the University of Sydney community took time out to farewell the supercomputer, Artemis, with a small celebration, reflecting on its years of service and the pivotal role it played in countless research projects. 鈥淎rtemis was regarded with a sense of great affection by many staff and students,鈥 says Professor , the University of Sydney鈥檚 Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure).聽
鈥淚ts聽decommissioning certainly was the end of an era, as Artemis achieved so much for the University through the research it enabled.鈥 When the first version of Artemis arrived in 2015, it was eagerly聽anticipated聽by researchers. Artemis was designed to speed up the University鈥檚 complex data analysis, supporting work in fields such as bioinformatics and genomics, as well as data-intensive research and modelling in earth sciences, agriculture,聽astronomy聽and physics. 鈥淲hen Artemis went live, there was a great sense of excitement 鈥 it felt like opening a whole new world of possibilities,鈥 Simon says.聽
鈥淭his was something completely new 鈥 faster, bigger, more powerful. Suddenly, our researchers could collaborate more, tackle questions that had seemed out of reach before.鈥澛
However, he recalls that there was some trepidation at first. 鈥淚nvesting in and installing something this big was a bit daunting initially, but it quickly became clear that it was the right move. Major research infrastructure like this is what lets our researchers do their best work and accelerates discoveries.聽It鈥檚聽about building something that boosts research, while delivering real benefits to the wider community.鈥澛犅
Major upgrades followed in 2016 and 2018, and Artemis went on to support more than 7000 researchers working on around 4000 research projects. In total, it delivered an estimated 360 million CPU core hours and contributed to more than 16,000 research papers.
Artemis' achievements
Among its most notable achievements was enabling evolutionary virologist Professor , with a colleague in China, to become the first to map and聽publicly release聽the COVID-19 genome. This work also earned Eddie the accolade of聽2020聽NSW Scientist of the Year.聽
鈥淢y team played a key role in revealing the origin and early spread of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19,鈥 Eddie says. 鈥淭his work requires聽the computational聽analysis of聽huge amounts聽of genome sequence data. This would have been impossible without Artemis; it absolutely transformed the research I was able to perform.鈥
Artemis聽ultimately underpinned聽a vast range of significant research projects at the University 鈥 from modelling global plate tectonics to surveying the Milky Way to developing advanced engineering simulations and quantum cryptography.聽聽
Other flagship projects enabled by Artemis
- Global hazards of pesticide and herbicide pollution聽
- Whole鈥慻enome sequencing in patients with prostate cancer or heart disease聽
- Design of new catalysts for batteries and fuel cells聽
- Viruses in honeybees, rabbits, mummies,聽parasites聽and Tasmanian devils聽
- Deep learning in soil science聽
- Modelling and detection of defects in concrete construction materials
My team played a key role in revealing the origin and early spread of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19,鈥 Eddie says. This would have been impossible without Artemis; it absolutely transformed the research I was able to perform.
Professor Edward (Eddie) Holmes
A long history of landmark computers
In many ways, the University is the cradle of Australia鈥檚 digital computing and computer science story. Artemis was the latest in聽a long line聽of聽groundbreaking聽University聽of Sydney computers that began with Australia鈥檚 first digital computer, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer (CSIRAC), which was operational on campus from 1949 to 1964.聽It was followed by SILLIAC, famously financed by a donor鈥檚 Melbourne聽Cup winnings, which ran from 1956 to 1968.聽
With Artemis decommissioned in 2025, the University continues its tradition of forward-thinking computing as it phases in a new suite of computing capabilities, known collectively as Sydney Research Cloud. This includes a new partnership with the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, which gives researchers access to聽Setonix, Australia鈥檚 most powerful supercomputer, and increasing capacity for AI-enabled research.聽
Simon says that Sydney Research Cloud will offer researchers more user-friendly,聽scalable聽and secure research computing.聽
鈥淥ur capacity to support AI-based research 鈥 machine learning and inference [prediction based on large data sets] 鈥 is receiving a huge boost, and聽we鈥檒l聽be able to drive faster, more powerful modelling. Sydney Research Cloud will give our researchers access to a flexible range of modern processing units with the reliability they need to both drive and collaborate on globally significant research.鈥澛
Although now retired, Artemis lives on in the discoveries it helped to make possible and in the聽foundations聽it laid for the future, as the University of Sydney steps into its next era of research computing.
Hero image - Photography: David Batterham.