ASCI White
Encyclopedia
ASCI White was a supercomputer
at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California
.
It was a computer cluster based on IBM's commercial RS/6000
SP computer. 512 of these machines were connected together for ASCI White, with 16 processor
s per node and 8,192 processors in total with 6 terabyte
s of memory and 160 terabytes of disk storage. Despite these formidable statistics, each processor was slow by 2006 standards, operating at a mere 375 MHz. Therefore, it was almost exclusively used for computations requiring dozens of processors. The computer weighed 106 tons and consumed 3 MW of electricity with a further 3 MW needed for cooling. It had a theoretical processing speed of 12.3 teraflops
. The system ran IBM's AIX operating system
.
ASCI White was made up of three individual systems, the 512 node White, the 28 node Ice and the 68 node Frost.
The system was built in Poughkeepsie, New York
. Completed in June 2000 it was transported to specially built facilities in California and officially dedicated on August 15, 2001. Claimed performance was 12,300 gigaflops, although this was not achieved in the widely accepted LINPACK
tests. The system cost $110 million.
It was built as stage three of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) started by the U.S. Department of Energy
and the National Nuclear Security Administration
to build a simulator to replace live WMD
testing following the moratorium
on testing started by President
George H. W. Bush
in 1992 and extended by Bill Clinton
in 1993.
The machine was decommissioned beginning July 27, 2006.
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
It was a computer cluster based on IBM's commercial RS/6000
RS/6000
RISC System/6000, or RS/6000 for short, is a family of RISC and UNIX based servers, workstations and supercomputers made by IBM in the 1990s. The RS/6000 family replaced the IBM RT computer platform in February 1990 and was the first computer line to see the use of IBM's POWER and PowerPC based...
SP computer. 512 of these machines were connected together for ASCI White, with 16 processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
s per node and 8,192 processors in total with 6 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s of memory and 160 terabytes of disk storage. Despite these formidable statistics, each processor was slow by 2006 standards, operating at a mere 375 MHz. Therefore, it was almost exclusively used for computations requiring dozens of processors. The computer weighed 106 tons and consumed 3 MW of electricity with a further 3 MW needed for cooling. It had a theoretical processing speed of 12.3 teraflops
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
. The system ran IBM's AIX operating system
AIX operating system
AIX AIX AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced "a i ex" is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms...
.
ASCI White was made up of three individual systems, the 512 node White, the 28 node Ice and the 68 node Frost.
The system was built in Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
. Completed in June 2000 it was transported to specially built facilities in California and officially dedicated on August 15, 2001. Claimed performance was 12,300 gigaflops, although this was not achieved in the widely accepted LINPACK
LINPACK
LINPACK is a software library for performing numerical linear algebra on digital computers. It was written in Fortran by Jack Dongarra, Jim Bunch, Cleve Moler, and Gilbert Stewart, and was intended for use on supercomputers in the 1970s and early 1980s...
tests. The system cost $110 million.
It was built as stage three of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) started by the U.S. Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
and the National Nuclear Security Administration
National Nuclear Security Administration
The United States National Nuclear Security Administration is part of the United States Department of Energy. It works to improve national security through the military application of nuclear energy...
to build a simulator to replace live WMD
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
testing following the moratorium
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but it has not entered into force.-Status:...
on testing started by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
in 1992 and extended by Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in 1993.
The machine was decommissioned beginning July 27, 2006.