Supercomputers/Systems/TU Delft Cray T3E
Netherlands · operational · hpc
TU Delft Cray T3E
Also known as Delft High Performance Applied Computing T3E
Operated by TU Delft .
Researched with AI assistance, checked by scripts. These rows were researched by AI agents reading public operator, laboratory and vendor sources, appended by scripts and checked by automated validation; no subject-matter expert has reviewed them (how this site is made). A mechanical second-reader pass has since fetched every cited source: 1350 of 1581 systems have a readable citation that names them, and 64 are genuinely weakly sourced. Every claim carries its source and a confidence tier. Treat anything below verified as a lead, not a citation.
Measured performance
- Rmax
- 28.3 GFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 38.4 GFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 73.7%
- Cores
- 64
- 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.
How it compares
Ranked against the other machines in this dataset that report the same figure: those that first came into service within two years of TU Delft Cray T3E, and those in Netherlands. Computed from our tables; a metric is ranked only when at least eight peers report it.
| Metric | Value | Against its era | Against its country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rmax | 28.3 GFlop/s | #24 of 31 · bottom 24% | #11 of 11 · bottom 1% |
| Rmax ÷ Rpeak | 73.7 % | #13 of 31 · top 40% | #6 of 11 · top 50% |
Every metric is ranked largest-first, so a high power-draw rank means a big power draw, not a good one. Rmax ÷ Rpeak uses HPL-measured results only. Rankings move as machines are added; they describe this dataset, not the world.
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 | - Cray T3E, 64 processors | Cray HPENYSE
rolls up to Hewlett Packard Enterprise | - | Reported | top500.orgcomputable.nl |
| CPU | - DEC Alpha EV5 300 MHz, 64 processors | Digital Equipment Corporation HPENYSE
rolls up to Hewlett Packard Enterprise | 64 reported | Reported | top500.org |
| Interconnect | - Cray T3E 3-D torus | Cray HPENYSE
rolls up to Hewlett Packard Enterprise | - | Reported | top500.org |
| Operating system | - UNICOS | Cray HPENYSE
rolls up to Hewlett Packard Enterprise | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
Cray T3E with 64 DEC Alpha EV5 300 MHz processors on a 3-D torus running UNICOS at the Technical University Delft, Rmax 28.3 and Rpeak 38.4 GFlop/s on the system page (25.1 in both appearances: rank 72 in November 1996 and rank 105 in June 1997) (https://www.top500.org/system/171113/). Computable reported on 17 November 1996 that the T3E, the most powerful computer in the Netherlands, had been put into use at TU Delft and that a centre for High Performance Applied Computing was opened at the same time to coordinate its use, working with SARA in Amsterdam, TNO, the large technical institutes and industrial partners. TOP500 records later, larger Delft T3E entries with 80 cores in November 1997 and June 1998 (https://www.top500.org/system/171135/) and 134 cores in the lists of November 1999 to November 2000 (https://www.top500.org/system/171050/), which appear to be upgrades of this installation and are not modelled separately. This record covers the original 64-processor stage.
Timeline
Public list appearances
Pointers only: rank and edition, linking to the canonical entry. We do not reproduce list tables. See sourcing policy.
Change history
- 2026-10-18 Added TU Delft Cray T3E (tu-delft)
Nearby in scale
The machines closest to TU Delft Cray T3E by Rmax, smaller to larger.
- ANU Fujitsu VPP300 · Australia, operational · 0 PFlop/s
- ZIB Cray T3D · Germany, operational · 0 PFlop/s
- PSC Cray T3D · USA, operational · 0 PFlop/s
- UTokyo HITAC S-3800/480 · Japan, decommissioned · 0 PFlop/s
- FROSTBURG · USA, operational · 0 PFlop/s
- NCSA CM-5/512 · USA, operational · 0 PFlop/s
Related systems
Same operator
- DelftBlue · Netherlands, operational, 2022
Further reading
Operating a supercomputer
Acceptance testing, why "installed" and "in production" are six months apart, and the machine lifecycle.
Inside a node
Latency-optimised versus throughput-optimised processors, NUMA, and the end of the host-to-device copy.
The interconnect
Topologies, why latency and tail behaviour matter more than bandwidth, and how the fabric market consolidated.