Supercomputers/Systems/Blue Fern
New Zealand · operational · hpc
Blue Fern
Also known as BlueFern; University of Canterbury Blue Gene
Operated by University of Canterbury .
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
- 9.43 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 11.47 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 82.2%
- Cores
- 4,096
- Power
- 44 kW
- Per watt
- 0.2 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 | - IBM eServer Blue Gene Solution (Blue Gene/L), two racks | IBM | - | Reported | top500.orgnzherald.co.nz |
| CPU | IBM PowerPC 440 700MHz CPUs PowerPC · 2C · 0.7 GHz · 130 nm · 13 W IBM PowerPC 440 700MHz, 4,096 cores | IBM | - | Reported | top500.org |
| Interconnect | IBM BlueGene 3D torus Interconnect 3D torus, plus separate collective and barrier networks · 175 MB/s per link per direction IBM Blue Gene proprietary torus interconnect | IBM | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
IBM Blue Gene supercomputer of the University of Canterbury's BlueFern facility, a national shared resource for New Zealand researchers including Victoria University, AUT University and the MacDiarmid Institute. The University commissioned the IBM Blue Gene/L in May 2007 with installation scheduled for July 2007, according to Geekzone and the New Zealand Herald (30 June 2007), which reports the machine at 99th on the TOP500 and used for stroke, diabetes and blood-flow research; Geekzone describes a two-rack system and the Herald puts the price at an undisclosed figure estimated above NZ$10 million. TOP500 lists it as an eServer Blue Gene Solution with 4,096 PowerPC 440 700MHz cores, Rmax 9.43 and Rpeak 11.47 TFlop/s and 44 kW, ranked 99th in June 2007, 177th in November 2007 and 418th in June 2008. The Herald's 280.6 teraflops figure is not used because it is inconsistent with TOP500's measured result. The June 2008 list is the last evidence found, so the status date is that list.
Timeline
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 Blue Fern at the University of Canterbury
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 |
|---|---|---|
| top500.org | names system and part | IBM PowerPC 440 700MHz |
| nzherald.co.nz | names system only | - |
Checked 2026-10-09 by pnpm verify. Re-run it and the table changes with the web.
Further reading
Operating a supercomputer
Acceptance testing, why "installed" and "in production" are six months apart, and the machine lifecycle.
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.