Supercomputers/Systems/Amazon EC2 C3 Instance Cluster
USA · operational · hpc
Amazon EC2 C3 Instance Cluster
Also known as AWS EC2 C3 cluster
Operated by Amazon .
Phase 1 seed dataset, compiled by hand. These rows were built from public operator, laboratory and vendor sources. A mechanical second-reader pass has since fetched every cited source: 1092 of 1153 systems have a readable citation that names them, and 40 are genuinely weakly sourced. Every claim carries its source and a confidence tier. Treat anything below verified as a lead, not a citation.
Measured performance
- Rmax
- 484.18 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 593.51 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 81.6%
- Cores
- 26,496
- Power
- 609.41 kW
- Per watt
- 0.8 GF/W
Figures are as last publicly reported for the configuration described below, not a live measurement. Where a system was upgraded in place, the post-upgrade configuration is shown and the earlier one appears in the timeline.
What this machine is made of
One row per supplier relationship. “Supplier at build” is the company that shipped the part at the time; where that company has since been acquired, the parent it rolls up to today is shown beside it. That distinction is what makes ticker-level aggregation possible across a thirty-year dataset.
| Role | Part | Supplier at build | Quantity | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrator | - Amazon Web Services built the cluster itself from EC2 C3 instances | Amazon | - | Reported | top500.orgaws.amazon.com |
| CPU | - Intel Xeon E5-2680v2 10C 2.8GHz | Intel | - | Reported | top500.orgaws.amazon.com |
| Interconnect | - 10G Ethernet | Amazon | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
A TOP500 cluster that Amazon Web Services built on C3 instances (Intel Xeon E5-2680v2, 2.8 GHz, 10G Ethernet). AWS's C3 launch post of 14 November 2013 cites the same 26,496-core cluster at 484.18 TFlop/s. TOP500 reports a measured 609.41 kW. It was listed from November 2013 (rank 65) to June 2017 (rank 439). No datacentre is named.
Timeline
- 2013 Announced source
- 2013-11 List debut at #65 (November 2013) source
- 2013-11 First operational source
Public list appearances
Pointers only: rank and edition, linking to the canonical entry. We do not reproduce list tables. See sourcing policy.
Change history
- 2026-10-09 Added Amazon EC2 C3 Instance Cluster
Source check
We fetched this system's own citations and recorded whether each page actually mentions it. This is a corroboration signal, not a fact check, and it is published so you can see how well the sourcing holds up rather than take it on trust.
| Cited source | Result | Found on the page |
|---|---|---|
| aws.amazon.com | names system only | - |
| top500.org | names system only | - |
Checked 2026-10-09 by pnpm verify. Re-run it and the table changes with the web.
Further reading
Inside a node
Latency-optimised versus throughput-optimised processors, NUMA, and the end of the host-to-device copy.
The interconnect
Topologies, why latency and tail behaviour matter more than bandwidth, and how the fabric market consolidated.
Operating a supercomputer
Acceptance testing, why "installed" and "in production" are six months apart, and the machine lifecycle.