<s>
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
(	O
also	O
known	O
as	O
ASCI	B-General_Concept
Option	O
Red	O
or	O
TFLOPS	O
)	O
was	O
the	O
first	O
computer	O
built	O
under	O
the	O
Accelerated	B-General_Concept
Strategic	I-General_Concept
Computing	I-General_Concept
Initiative	I-General_Concept
(	O
ASCI	B-General_Concept
)	O
,	O
the	O
supercomputing	B-Architecture
initiative	O
of	O
the	O
United	O
States	O
government	O
created	O
to	O
help	O
the	O
maintenance	O
of	O
the	O
United	O
States	O
nuclear	O
arsenal	O
after	O
the	O
1992	O
moratorium	O
on	O
nuclear	O
testing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
was	O
built	O
by	O
Intel	O
and	O
installed	O
at	O
Sandia	O
National	O
Laboratories	O
in	O
late	O
1996	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
design	O
was	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
Intel	B-Device
Paragon	I-Device
computer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
original	O
goals	O
to	O
deliver	O
a	O
true	O
teraflop	O
machine	O
by	O
the	O
end	O
of	O
1996	O
that	O
would	O
be	O
capable	O
of	O
running	O
an	O
ASCI	B-General_Concept
application	O
using	O
all	O
memory	O
and	O
nodes	O
by	O
September	O
1997	O
were	O
met	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
used	O
by	O
the	O
US	O
government	O
from	O
the	O
years	O
of	O
1997	O
to	O
2005	O
and	O
was	O
the	O
world	O
's	O
fastest	B-Operating_System
supercomputer	I-Operating_System
until	O
late	O
2000	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
the	O
first	O
ASCI	B-General_Concept
machine	O
that	O
the	O
Department	O
of	O
Energy	O
acquired	O
,	O
and	O
also	O
the	O
first	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
to	O
score	O
above	O
one	O
teraflops	O
on	O
the	O
LINPACK	B-Application
benchmark	O
,	O
a	O
test	O
that	O
measures	O
a	O
computer	O
's	O
calculation	O
speed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Later	O
upgrades	O
to	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
allowed	O
it	O
to	O
perform	O
above	O
two	O
teraflops	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
earned	O
a	O
reputation	O
for	O
reliability	O
that	O
some	O
veterans	O
say	O
has	O
never	O
been	O
beaten	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
was	O
decommissioned	O
in	O
2006	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
supercomputer	B-Architecture
was	O
a	O
distributed	O
memory	O
MIMD	B-Operating_System
(	O
Multiple	B-Operating_System
Instruction	I-Operating_System
,	I-Operating_System
Multiple	I-Operating_System
Data	I-Operating_System
)	O
message-passing	O
computer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
design	O
provided	O
high	O
degrees	O
of	O
scalability	O
for	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
,	O
memory	O
,	O
compute	O
nodes	O
,	O
storage	O
capacity	O
,	O
and	O
communications	O
;	O
standard	O
parallel	O
interfaces	O
also	O
made	O
it	O
possible	O
to	O
port	O
parallel	O
applications	O
to	O
the	O
machine	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
machine	O
was	O
structured	O
into	O
four	O
partitions	O
:	O
Compute	O
,	O
Service	O
,	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
,	O
and	O
System	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
Partition	O
supported	O
disk	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
,	O
a	O
scalable	O
parallel	O
file	O
system	O
and	O
network	O
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Service	O
partition	O
helps	O
integrate	O
all	O
of	O
the	O
different	O
parts	O
of	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
together	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
Partition	O
provides	O
a	O
file	O
system	O
and	O
network	O
services	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
Service	O
partition	O
is	O
made	O
up	O
of	O
the	O
log-in	O
screens	O
,	O
tools	O
for	O
application	O
development	O
,	O
and	O
utilities	O
for	O
network	O
connections	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Every	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
compute	O
nodes	O
accommodated	O
two	O
200MHz	O
Pentium	B-Device
Pro	I-Device
processors	I-Device
,	O
each	O
with	O
a	O
16	O
KB	O
level-1	B-General_Concept
cache	I-General_Concept
and	O
a	O
256	O
KB	O
level-2	B-General_Concept
cache	I-General_Concept
,	O
which	O
were	O
upgraded	O
later	O
to	O
two	O
333MHz	O
Pentium	O
II	O
OverDrive	O
processors	O
,	O
each	O
with	O
a	O
32	O
KB	O
level-1	B-General_Concept
cache	I-General_Concept
and	O
a	O
512	O
KB	O
level-2	B-General_Concept
cache	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
According	O
to	O
Intel	O
,	O
the	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
Computer	O
is	O
also	O
the	O
first	O
large	O
scale	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
to	O
be	O
built	O
entirely	O
of	O
common	O
commercially	O
available	O
components	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
All	O
of	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
's	O
partitions	O
are	O
interconnected	O
to	O
form	O
one	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
,	O
however	O
at	O
the	O
same	O
time	O
none	O
of	O
the	O
nodes	O
support	O
global	O
shared	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
original	O
machine	O
used	O
Intel	B-Device
Pentium	I-Device
Pro	I-Device
processors	I-Device
each	O
clocked	O
at	O
200MHz	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
What	O
sets	O
ASCI	B-General_Concept
Option	O
Red	O
aside	O
from	O
all	O
of	O
its	O
predecessors	O
in	O
supercomputing	B-Architecture
is	O
its	O
high	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
bandwidth	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Previous	O
supercomputers	B-Architecture
had	O
multi-GFLOPS	O
performance	O
,	O
yet	O
their	O
slow	O
I/O	B-General_Concept
speeds	O
would	O
slow	O
down	O
,	O
or	O
bottleneck	O
the	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
December	O
,	O
1996	O
,	O
three	O
quarters	O
of	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
was	O
measured	O
at	O
a	O
world	O
record	O
1.06	O
TFLOPS	O
on	O
MP	O
LINPACK	B-Application
and	O
held	O
the	O
record	O
for	O
fastest	B-Operating_System
supercomputer	I-Operating_System
in	O
the	O
world	O
for	O
several	O
consecutive	O
years	O
,	O
maxing	O
out	O
at	O
2.38	O
TFLOPS	O
after	O
a	O
processor	O
and	O
memory	O
upgrade	O
in	O
1999	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
system	O
used	O
Pentium	B-Device
Pro	I-Device
processors	I-Device
when	O
initially	O
constructed	O
and	O
when	O
it	O
recorded	O
performance	O
above	O
one	O
TFLOPS	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
different	O
partitions	O
of	O
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
run	O
on	O
different	O
operating	B-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
users	O
of	O
the	O
computer	O
work	O
in	O
an	O
environment	O
called	O
"	O
Teraflops	O
OS	O
"	O
,	O
an	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
(	O
once	O
called	O
Paragon	O
OS	O
)	O
that	O
was	O
originally	O
developed	O
for	O
the	O
Intel	B-Device
Paragon	I-Device
XP/S	I-Device
Supercomputer	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
ASCI	B-Device
Red	I-Device
's	O
Compute	O
partition	O
runs	O
on	O
an	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
named	O
Cougar	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Cougar	O
is	O
a	O
Sandia	O
Labs	O
and	O
University	O
of	O
New	O
Mexico	O
collaboration	O
;	O
it	O
is	O
a	O
lightweight	B-Device
OS	I-Device
based	O
on	O
PUMA	O
and	O
SUNMOS	O
,	O
two	O
systems	O
that	O
were	O
also	O
designed	O
for	O
use	O
on	O
the	O
Paragon	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Linux	B-Application
2.4	O
kernel	O
was	O
ported	O
to	O
the	O
system	O
and	O
a	O
custom	O
CNIC	O
driver	O
was	O
written	O
,	O
but	O
the	O
heavy	O
weight	O
OS	O
did	O
not	O
perform	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
Cougar	O
lightweight	O
kernel	O
on	O
many	O
benchmarks	O
.	O
</s>
