Supercomputers/Systems/BlueGene/L
USA · decommissioned · classified
BlueGene/L
Also known as BG/L
Operated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at Livermore Computing Center.
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
- 478.20 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 596.38 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 80.2%
- Cores
- 212,992
- Power
- 1.43 MW
- Per watt
- 0.3 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 | — IBM eServer Blue Gene Solution | IBM | — | Reported | ibm.comhpc.llnl.gov |
| CPU | IBM PowerPC 440 700MHz CPUs PowerPC 440 700MHz, 106,496 nodes | IBM | 106,496 reported | Reported | ibm.comhpc.llnl.gov |
| Interconnect | IBM BlueGene 3D torus Interconnect integrated 3D torus | IBM | — | Reported | ibm.comhpc.llnl.gov |
| Operating system | IBM Compute Node Kernel Operating systems Compute Node Kernel | IBM | — | Reported | ibm.comhpc.llnl.gov |
The read
IBM's argument that the right way to scale was many deliberately slow, low-power embedded cores rather than fewer fast ones. Held the top position for three and a half years, longer than any system since. Its bill of materials is unusually short: IBM supplied the processor, the integrated 3D torus interconnect, the compute node kernel and the integration. There is no third-party fabric vendor and no accelerator vendor — a vertical integration pattern that has since reappeared, in different hands, at Fujitsu and at NVIDIA. Retirement year is not recorded here because we have not found a primary source for the exact date.
Timeline
- 2001 Announced source
- 2004-11 List debut at #1 (November 2004) source
- 2004-11 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
Livermore Computing Center
- Location
- Livermore, CA, USA
- Cooling
- Direct liquid cooling (warm water)
- Commissioned
- 1996