ASCI-Red T-Flop Computer Cabinet
date: label: Date made
content: 1996 - 2006
name: label: maker
content: Intel Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This computer cabinet is filled with compute nodes, which were used to process data,. With no input or output device or self contained operating system, the cabinet could not function on its own.
label: Description
content: The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) begun by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1996 aimed to verify the safety, reliability and performance of the country's nuclear stockpile by shifting from nuclear tests to computer simulations. From a techical perspective, ASCI embodied a new approach to supercomputing. Instead custom building a supercomputer with specialized supercomputer chips, large numbers of standard desktop computer porocessors were organized to work in parallel, rather than serially as they do in standard desktops. ASCI-Red was a fourth-generation massively parallel supercomputer. It relied on Intel's Pentium Pro processor chips that first came on the market in 1995. This processor allowed the ASCI-Red to achieve the rank of fastest computer in the world on seven seperate occasions, which was unprecedented.
label: Description
content: Usdually the ASCI-Red was used for classified work in the nuclear weapons program. However, it was also used on numerous unclassified projects, including a simulation of what would happen if an asteroid measuring a kilometer in diameter hit the earth and a simulation of the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Sandia National Laboratory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2007.0117.01
label: catalog number
content: 2007.0117.01
label: accession number
content: 2007.0117
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Supercomputer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 79 in x 24 in x 48 in; 200.66 cm x 60.96 cm x 121.92 cm