Supercomputers/Systems/Aurora
USA · operational · mixed
Aurora
Also known as A21
Operated by Argonne National Laboratory at Argonne Leadership Computing Facility.
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
- 1.01 EFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 1.98 EFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 51.1%
- Cores
- 9,264,128
- Power
- 38.70 MW
- Per watt
- 26.2 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 | — HPE Cray EX | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | — | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| Accelerator | Intel Data Center GPU Max 1550 Accelerators Intel Data Center GPU Max, 6 per node | Intel | 63,744 reported | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| CPU | Intel Xeon CPU Max 9470 CPUs Xeon CPU Max 9470 52C, 2 per node | Intel | 21,248 reported | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| Interconnect | HPE Slingshot-11 Interconnect Slingshot-11 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | — | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| Storage | Intel DAOS Storage DAOS, 230 PB | Intel | — | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| Cooling | Direct liquid cooling, warm water Cooling direct liquid cooled cabinet | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | — | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
| Operating system | HPE Cray Operating System Operating systems HPE Cray Operating System | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | — | Reported | alcf.anl.govintel.com |
The read
The longest gap between announcement and first light of any system in this dataset — contracted in 2015 around a Xeon Phi design that was cancelled, redesigned around Ponte Vecchio, and delivered eight years later. That lag is the single data point most responsible for the shape of our announcement-to-first-light chart, and it is a vendor-execution story rather than a facility one. Two Xeon Max CPUs and six Data Center GPU Max accelerators per node, on HPE Slingshot-11 — a rare case of the accelerator and integrator roles sitting with different companies at this scale.
Timeline
- 2015 Announced source
- 2023-11 List debut at #2 (November 2023) source
- 2023-12 First operational 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
Argonne Leadership Computing Facility
- Location
- Lemont, IL, USA
- Cooling
- Direct liquid cooling (warm water)
- Commissioned
- 2006