Editing ASCI Red (section)

{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Short description|Supercomputer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = March 2019}}
{{infobox custom computer
| Image          = Asci red - tflop4m.jpeg
| Caption        = ASCI Red as seen from inside Sandia Labs
| Website        = [https://web.archive.org/web/20110926225845/http://www.sandia.gov/ASCI/Red/ web.archive.org]
| Dates          = Two-Thirds Operational March 1997, Fully Operational June 1997,<ref name="ASCI">{{cite web|last=Thomas |first=Robert |title=ASCI Red Homepage |url=http://www.sandia.gov/ASCI/Red/ |publisher=Sandia National Laboratories |access-date=30 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926225845/http://www.sandia.gov/ASCI/Red/ |archive-date=September 26, 2011 }}</ref> decommissioned 2006<ref name="decom">{{cite web|url=https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2006/asci-red-decom.html|access-date=2014-05-26|date=2006-06-29|title=Sandia's ASCI Red, world's first teraflop supercomputer, is decommissioned|website=sandia.gov|archive-date=September 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929083624/https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2006/asci-red-decom.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| Location       = [[Sandia National Laboratories]], [[United States]]
| Sponsors       = [[Intel Corporation]]<ref name=ASCI/>
| Operators      = [[Sandia National Laboratories]], [[US Department of Energy]]
| Architecture   = 
| Memory         = 1212 [[gigabytes]]
| Storage        = 
| Speed          = 1.3 [[teraflops]] (peak)<ref name=ASCI/>
| OS             = Cougar / TOS (a [[Mach (kernel)|Mach kernel]] derivative)
| Power          = 850 kW
| Space          = {{convert|1600|ft2|abbr=on}}<ref name="MIT">{{cite web|last=Mattson|first=Timothy|title=An Overview of the Intel TFLOPS Supercompute|url=http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/aries/course/notes/ascii_red.pdf|publisher=MIT|access-date=30 October 2011}}</ref> 
| Cost           = 
| ChartName      = [[TOP500]]
| ChartPosition  = 1
| ChartDate      = June 2000<ref name="top500">{{cite web|title=TOP500.org Ranking History for ASCI Red |url=http://top500.org/system//4428 |work=TOP500 Supercomputer Sites |access-date=29 October 2011}}</ref> 
| Purpose        = nuclear materials testing, other
| Legacy         = First Supercomputer to achieve over 1.0 [[teraflops]] on [[LINPACK]] test
| Emulators      = 
| Sources        = 
}}

'''ASCI Red''' (also known as '''ASCI Option Red''' or '''TFLOPS''') was the first computer built under the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative ([[Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative|ASCI]]),<ref name="Sandia">{{cite web|last=Mattson |first=Timothy |title=The ASCI Option Red Supercomputer |url=http://www.sandia.gov/ASCI/Red/papers/Mattson/OVERVIEW.html |access-date=27 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528051556/http://www.sandia.gov/ASCI/Red/papers/Mattson/OVERVIEW.html |archive-date=28 May 2010 }}</ref><ref name="Garg">{{cite book|last=Garg|first=Sharad|chapter=Performance Evaluation of Parallel File Systems for PC Clusters and ASCI Red |publisher=IEEE|doi=10.1109/CLUSTR.2001.959973|title=Proceedings 2001 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing|pages=172–177|year=2001|isbn=0-7695-1116-3|s2cid=13224481 }}</ref> the [[supercomputing]] initiative of the [[United States government]] created to help the maintenance of the [[The United States and weapons of mass destruction#Nuclear weapons|United States nuclear arsenal]] after the 1992 moratorium on [[nuclear testing]].

ASCI Red was built by Intel and installed at [[Sandia National Laboratories]] in late 1996.  The design was based on the [[Intel Paragon]] computer.  The original goals to deliver a true teraflop machine by the end of 1996 that would be capable of running an ASCI application using all memory and nodes by September 1997 were met.<ref name="cug.org">{{cite web|title=7X Performance Results – Final Report: ASCI Red vs. Red Storm|url=http://www.cug.org/5-publications/proceedings_attendee_lists/2008CD/S08_Proceedings/pages/Authors/06-10Tuesday/Vaughn-9A/Stevenson-Tuesday9A/Stevenson-Tuesday9A-paper.pdf|access-date=17 November 2011}}</ref>
It was used by the US government from the years of 1997 to 2005 and was the world's fastest supercomputer until late 2000.<ref name="top500"/><ref name=Garg/> It was the first ASCI machine that the Department of Energy acquired,<ref name=Garg/> and also the first supercomputer to score above one [[teraflops]] on the [[LINPACK]] benchmark, a test that measures a computer's calculation speed. Later upgrades to ASCI Red allowed it to perform above two teraflops.

ASCI Red earned a reputation for reliability that some veterans say has never been beaten. Sandia director Bill Camp said that ASCI Red had the best reliability of any supercomputer ever built, and “was supercomputing’s high-water mark in longevity, price, and performance.”
<ref name="jacobsequity.com">{{cite web|title=Sandia's ASCI Red, world's first teraflop supercomputer, is decommissioned |url=http://www.jacobsequity.com/downloads/ASCIRedSupercomputer.pdf|access-date=8 January 2013}}</ref>

ASCI Red was decommissioned in 2006.<ref name="decom" />