<s>
Columbia	B-General_Concept
was	O
a	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
built	O
by	O
Silicon	O
Graphics	O
(	O
SGI	O
)	O
for	O
the	O
National	O
Aeronautics	O
and	O
Space	O
Administration	O
(	O
NASA	O
)	O
,	O
installed	O
in	O
2004	O
at	O
the	O
NASA	O
Advanced	O
Supercomputing	B-Architecture
(	O
NAS	B-Device
)	O
facility	O
located	O
at	O
Moffett	O
Field	O
in	O
California	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Named	O
in	O
honor	O
of	O
the	O
crew	O
who	O
died	O
in	O
the	O
Space	O
Shuttle	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
disaster	O
,	O
it	O
increased	O
NASA	O
's	O
supercomputing	B-Architecture
capacity	O
ten-fold	O
for	O
the	O
agency	O
's	O
science	O
,	O
aeronautics	O
and	O
exploration	O
programs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Missions	O
run	O
on	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
include	O
high-fidelity	O
simulations	O
of	O
the	O
Space	O
Shuttle	O
vehicle	O
and	O
launch	O
systems	O
,	O
hurricane	O
track	O
prediction	O
,	O
global	O
ocean	O
circulation	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
physics	O
of	O
supernova	O
detonations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Columbia	B-General_Concept
debuted	O
as	O
the	O
second	O
most	O
powerful	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
on	O
the	O
TOP500	B-Operating_System
list	O
in	O
November	O
2004	O
at	O
a	O
LINPACK	B-Device
rating	O
of	O
51.87	O
teraflops	O
,	O
or	O
51.87	O
trillion	O
floating	O
point	O
calculations	O
per	O
second	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
originally	O
composed	O
of	O
20	O
interconnected	O
SGI	B-Architecture
Altix	I-Architecture
3700	O
512-processor	O
multi-rack	O
systems	O
running	O
SUSE	O
Linux	O
Enterprise	O
,	O
using	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
Itanium	I-General_Concept
2	O
Montecito	B-Device
and	O
Montvale	B-General_Concept
processors	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2006	O
,	O
NASA	O
and	O
SGI	O
added	O
four	O
new	O
Altix	B-Architecture
4700	O
nodes	O
containing	O
256	O
dual-core	O
processors	O
,	O
which	O
decreased	O
the	O
physical	O
footprint	O
and	O
the	O
power	O
cost	O
of	O
the	O
supercomputer	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
nodes	O
were	O
connected	O
with	O
InfiniBand	B-Architecture
single	O
and	O
double	O
data	O
rate	O
(	O
SDR	O
and	O
DDR	O
)	O
cabling	O
with	O
transfer	O
speeds	O
of	O
up	O
to	O
10	O
gigabits	O
per	O
second	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
SGI	B-Architecture
Altix	I-Architecture
platform	O
was	O
selected	O
due	O
to	O
a	O
positive	O
experience	O
with	O
Kalpana	B-General_Concept
,	O
a	O
single-node	O
Altix	B-Architecture
512-CPU	O
system	O
built	O
and	O
operated	O
by	O
NASA	O
and	O
SGI	O
and	O
named	O
after	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
astronaut	O
Kalpana	B-General_Concept
Chawla	O
,	O
the	O
first	O
Indian-born	O
woman	O
to	O
fly	O
in	O
space	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Kalpana	B-General_Concept
was	O
later	O
integrated	O
into	O
the	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
supercomputer	I-General_Concept
system	O
as	O
the	O
first	O
node	O
of	O
twenty	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
its	O
peak	O
,	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
had	O
a	O
total	O
of	O
10,240	O
processors	O
and	O
20	O
terabytes	O
of	O
memory	O
,	O
440	O
terabytes	O
of	O
online	O
storage	O
,	O
and	O
10	O
petabytes	O
of	O
archival	O
tape	O
storage	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Project	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
team	O
,	O
composed	O
mostly	O
of	O
computer	O
scientists	O
and	O
engineers	O
from	O
NAS	B-Device
,	O
SGI	O
,	O
and	O
Intel	O
,	O
were	O
awarded	O
the	O
Government	O
Computer	O
News	O
(	O
GCN	O
)	O
Agency	O
Award	O
for	O
Innovation	O
in	O
2005	O
for	O
deploying	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
's	O
original	O
10,240	O
processors	O
in	O
an	O
unprecedented	O
120	O
days	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
slowly	O
phased	O
out	O
as	O
its	O
successors	O
at	O
NAS	B-Device
,	O
the	O
petascale	B-General_Concept
Pleiades	B-Device
supercomputer	I-Device
and	O
the	O
Endeavour	B-Device
shared-memory	O
system	O
,	O
expanded	O
to	O
meet	O
with	O
NASA	O
's	O
growing	O
high-end	O
computing	O
needs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
time	O
of	O
its	O
decommissioning	O
in	O
March	O
2013	O
,	O
Columbia	B-General_Concept
was	O
made	O
up	O
of	O
four	O
nodes	O
over	O
40	O
SGI	B-Architecture
Altix	I-Architecture
4700	O
racks	O
,	O
containing	O
Intel	B-General_Concept
Itanium	I-General_Concept
2	O
Montecito	B-Device
and	O
Montvale	B-General_Concept
processors	O
to	O
make	O
up	O
a	O
total	O
of	O
4,608	O
cores	O
with	O
a	O
theoretical	O
peak	O
of	O
30	O
teraflops	O
and	O
total	O
memory	O
of	O
9	O
terabytes	O
.	O
</s>
