Supercomputers/Systems/ASCI Red
USA · decommissioned · classified
ASCI Red
Operated by Sandia National Laboratories at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque.
Phase 1 seed dataset — under review. These rows were compiled by hand from public operator, laboratory and vendor sources, and have not yet been through a second-reader verification pass. Every claim carries its source and a confidence tier; treat anything below verified as a lead, not a citation.
Measured performance
- Rmax
- 1.07 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 1.80 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 59.3%
- Cores
- 9,298
- Power
- —
- Per watt
- — GF/W
Figures are as last publicly reported for the configuration described below, not a live measurement. Where a system was upgraded in place, the post-upgrade configuration is shown and the earlier one appears in the timeline.
What this machine is made of
One row per supplier relationship. “Supplier at build” is the company that shipped the part at the time; where that company has since been acquired, the parent it rolls up to today is shown beside it. That distinction is what makes ticker-level aggregation possible across a thirty-year dataset.
| Role | Part | Supplier at build | Quantity | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrator | — Intel Supercomputer Systems Division | Intel | — | Reported | sandia.gov |
| CPU | Intel Pentium Pro 200 MHz CPUs Intel Pentium Pro 200 MHz | Intel | 9,298 reported | Reported | sandia.gov |
| Interconnect | Intel ASCI Red mesh Interconnect Intel custom 2D mesh | Intel | — | Reported | sandia.gov |
The read
The first teraflop system, and the moment the industry's bill of materials changed permanently. ASCI Red was built from roughly nine thousand Intel Pentium Pro processors — commodity desktop silicon — rather than custom vector parts. Intel's Supercomputer Systems Division was wound down shortly afterwards, so the integrator role and the CPU role, which sat with the same company here, have had no common owner since. Stockpile stewardship workload; details of what it actually ran remain classified.
Timeline
- 1993 Announced source
- 1997-06 List debut at #1 (June 1997) source
- 1997-06 First operational source
- 2006 Decommissioned source
Public list appearances
Pointers only — rank and edition, linking to the canonical entry. We do not reproduce list tables. See sourcing policy.
Site & facility
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque
- Location
- Albuquerque, NM, USA
- Cooling
- Chilled water
- Commissioned
- 1990