Supercomputers/Systems/Firestorm
Denmark · operational · hpc
Firestorm
Operated by Vestas Wind Systems .
Phase 1 seed dataset, compiled by hand. These rows were built from public operator, laboratory and vendor sources. A mechanical second-reader pass has since fetched every cited source: 1263 of 1345 systems have a readable citation that names them, and 56 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
- 162.10 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 183.68 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 88.3%
- Cores
- 15,672
- Power
- 489.75 kW
- 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 System x iDataPlex DX360M3 | IBM | - | Verified | top500.orgfr.newsroom.ibm.com |
| CPU | Intel Xeon X5670 CPUs x86-64 · 6C · 2.93 GHz · 32 nm · 95 W Intel Xeon X5670 6C 2.93GHz, 15,672 cores | Intel | - | Reported | top500.org |
| Interconnect | Mellanox InfiniBand QDR Interconnect Fat tree · 40 Gb/s per 4x port InfiniBand QDR | NVIDIA | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
Vestas Wind Systems' IBM System x iDataPlex DX360M3 supercomputer, which Vestas and IBM call Firestorm: Xeon X5670 6C 2.93GHz processors on InfiniBand QDR running Linux. IBM's 27 October 2011 announcement describes 1,222 connected iDataPlex servers running BigInsights big-data software to site wind turbines, says it replaced a less powerful HP system, and places it 53rd on the TOP500; TOP500 independently lists rank 53 on the June 2011 list (14,664 cores, 151.67 TFlop/s) growing to 15,672 cores, 162.1 TFlop/s Rmax, 183.68 TFlop/s Rpeak and 489.75 kW. Last appeared at rank 445 on November 2014, which is the basis for the status date. Earlier than the Vestas1 row already in this dataset.
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
- 2026-10-09 Added Firestorm
Source check
We fetched this system's own citations and recorded whether each page actually mentions it. This is a corroboration signal, not a fact check, and it is published so you can see how well the sourcing holds up rather than take it on trust.
| Cited source | Result | Found on the page |
|---|---|---|
| fr.newsroom.ibm.com | names system only | - |
| top500.org | does not name this system | Intel Xeon X5670, Mellanox InfiniBand QDR |
Checked 2026-10-13 by pnpm verify. Re-run it and the table changes with the web.
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.