NERSCPowering Scientific Discovery Since 1974

History of Systems

Established in 1974 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NERSC was moved to Berkeley Lab in 1996 with a goal of increased interactions with the UC Berkeley campus.

NERSC Systems

System NameInstalledSystem TypeCPUComputational PoolInterconnectDisk (TB)Avg. PowerLinpack HPL/ Top RankPeak GFlops/s
TypeSpeedNodesSMP SizeTotal CoresAggregate Memory (GB)Avg. Memory/ CPU
Hopper 2010 Cray XE6 Opteron Hex-Core 2.1 GHz 6,384 24 153,216 216,832 1.4 GB Gemini 2,000   1,054,000 (5) 1,054,000
Carver 2010 IBM iDataPlex Intel Nehalem Quad-Core 2.6 GHz 400 8 3,200 9,600 3 GB 4X QDR InfiniBand NGF   36,856 (322) 42,656
Euclid 2010 Sun Sunfire x4640 Opteron Hex-Core 2.6 GHz 1 48 48 512 10.7 GB   NGF     499
Hopper XT5 2009 Cray XT5 Opteron Quad-Core 2.4 GHz 664 8 5,312 10,524 2 GB SeaStar 2,000     50,995
Franklin QuadCore 2009 Cray XT4 Opteron Quad-Core
2.3 GHz 9,572 4 38,288 76,576 2 GB SeaStar 436 1.6 mW 266,300 (8) 352,000
Franklin DualCore 2007 Cray XT4 Opteron Dual-Core
2.6 GHz 9,660 2 19,320 38,640 2 GB SeaStar 356   85,368 (9) 102,000
Bassi 2005 IBM p575 POWER 5 Single-Core
1.9 GHz 111 8 888 3,552 4 GB IBM HPS 58 300 kW 6,415 (53) 6,700
Jacquard 2005 LinuxNetworx Linux Cluster Opteron 2.2 GHz 356 2 712 2,136 3 GB InfiniBand 18 135 kW 2,215 (305) 3,100
DaVinci 2005 SGI Altix Itanium 2 1.4 GHz 1 32 32 192 6 GB NUMA 22 6 kW   180
Seaborg II 2002 IBM SP POWER 3+ 375 MHz 416 16 6,656   GB IBM Colony     7,304 (5) 9,984
Seaborg I 2001 IBM SP POWER 3 375 MHz 208 16 3,328 3,328 1.0 GB IBM Colony     3,052 (2) 4,992
JWatson 1999 Cray Y-MP J90 Cray CMOS 100 MHz 1 32 32 8 250 MB SMP       6.4
FCrick 1999 Cray Y-MP J90 Cray CMOS 100 MHz 1 32 32 8 250 MB SMP       6.4
GSeaborg 1999 IBM SP Power3 200 POWER 3 200 MHz 256 2 512 256 0.5 GB IBM TB3MX 3.5   310 (30) 483
MCurie 1997 Cray T3E900 DEC Alpha 450 MHz 692 1 512 173 256 MB 3D Torus 0.37   444 (5) 622
Pierre 1996 Cray T3E600 DEC Alpha EV5 300 MHz 128 1 128 38 256 MB 3D Torus     55.7 (34) 76.8
Franklin 1996 Cray Y-MP J932/32-8192 Cray CMOS 100 MHz 1 32 32 8 250 MB SMP     5.8 (372) 6,4
Killeen 1996 Cray Y-MP J932/32-8192 Cray CMOS 100 MHz 1 32 32 8 250 MB SMP     5.8 (372) 6.4
Bhaskara 1996 Cray Y-MP J932/32-8192 Cray CMOS 100 MHz 1 32 32 8 250 MB SMP     5.8 (372) 6.4
A 1992 Cray C90 Cray 238 MHz 1 16 16 2 125 MB SMP 0.15 368 kW 13.7 (99) 15.2

NERSC in the Top 500

DateNameSystem TypeCoresPeak (GFlops/s)RmaxWorld Rank
November 2012 Hopper Cray XE6 12-Core 2.1 GHz 153,216 1,288,627 1,054,000 19
June 2012 Hopper Cray XE6 12-Core 2.1 GHz 153,216 1,288,627 1,054,000 16
November 2011 Hopper Cray XE6 12-Core 2.1 GHz 153,216 1,288,627 1,054,000 8
November 2011 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 38
June 2011 Hopper Cray XE6 12-Core 2.1 GHz 153,216 1,288,627 1,054,000 8
June 2011 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 27
June 2011 Magellan iDataPlex, Xeon X55xx QC 2.66 GHz, Infiniband 4,960 52,893 45,702 382
November 2010 Hopper Cray XE6 12-Core 2.1 GHz 153,216 1,288,627 1,054,000 5
November 2010 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 26
November 2010 Magellan iDataPlex, Xeon X55xx QC 2.66 GHz, Infiniband 4,960 52,893

45,702

194
November 2010 Carver iDataPlex, Xeon X55xx QC 2.66 GHz, Infiniband 4,000 42,656 36,856 322
November 2009 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 15
June 2009 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 11
November 2008 Franklin Cray XT4 QuadCore 2.3 GHz 38,642 355,506 266,300 8
June 2008 Franklin Cray XT4, 2.6 GHz 19,320 100,464 85,368 16
November 2007 Franklin Cray XT4, 2.6 GHz 19,320 100,464 85,368 9
November 2007 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 332
November 2007 Bassi IBM eServer pSeries p5 575 1.9 GHz 976 7,417 6,415 424
June 2007 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 158
June 2007 Bassi IBM eServer pSeries p5 575 1.9 GHz 976 7,417 6,415 196
November 2006 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 91
November 2006 Bassi IBM eServer pSeries p5 575 1.9 GHz 976 7,417 6,415 102
June 2006 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 61
June 2006 Bassi IBM eServer pSeries p5 575 1.9 GHz 976 7,417 6,415 72
June 2006 Jacquard Opteron 2.2 GHz, Infiniband 630 2,772 2,125 464
November 2005 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 47
November 2005 Bassi IBM eServer pSeries p5 575 1.9 GHz 976 7,417 6,415 53
November 2005 Jacquard Opteron 2.2 GHz, Infiniband 630 2,772 2,125 305
June 2005 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 36
November 2004 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 21
June 2004 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 14
November 2003 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 9
June 2003 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 6,656 9,984 7,304 5
November 2002 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 3,328 4,992 3,052 12
June 2002 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 3,328 4,992 3,052 5
June 2002 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 105
November 2001 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 3,052 4,992 3,052 3
November 2001 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 67
June 2001 Seaborg IBM SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way 2,528 3,792 2,526 2
June 2001 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 54
June 2001 GSeaborg IBM SP Power3 200 MHz 604 483.2 310 77
June 2001 Alvarez IBM Netfinity Cluster PIII 866 MHz - Myrinet 160 139 81.4 385
November 2000 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 42
November 2000 GSeaborg IBM SP Power3 200 MHz 604 483.2 310 60
June 2000 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 34
June 2000 GSeaborg IBM SP Power3 200 MHz 604 483.2 310 45
November 1999 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 23
November 1999 GSeaborg IBM SP Power3 200 MHz 604 483 310 30
June 1999 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 17
November 1998 MCurie Cray T3E 900 692 622.8 444 12
June 1998 MCurie Cray T3E 900 512 460.8 321 8
June 1998 A Y-MP C916/16256 16 15.2 13.7 488
November 1997 MCurie Cray T3E 900 512 461 265 5
November 1997 A Y-MP C916/16256 16 15.2 13.7 314
June 1997 ??? Cray T3E 160 96.0 61.4 37
June 1997 A Y-MP C916/16256 16 15.2 13.7 212
November 1996 ??? Cray T3E 128 76.8 50.4 34
November 1996 A Y-MP C916/16256 16 15.2 13.7 139
November 1996 Killeen Y-MP J932/32-8192 32 6.4 5.8 372
November 1996 Franklin Y-MP J932/32-8192 32 6.4 5.8 373
November 1996 ??? Y-MP J932/32-8192 32 6.4 5.8 374
June 1996 A Y-MP C916/16256 16 15.2 13.7 99