Supercomputers/Systems/Bluesky
USA · decommissioned · hpc
Bluesky
Also known as NCAR IBM p690
Operated by NCAR .
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
- 3.16 TFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 6.32 TFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 50.0%
- Cores
- 1,216
- Power
- -
- Per watt
- - 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 p690 (38 frames at delivery) | IBM | - | Reported | top500.orgcisl.ucar.edu |
| CPU | - IBM POWER4 1.3 GHz | IBM | 1,216 reported | Reported | top500.orgcisl.ucar.edu |
| Interconnect | - IBM Colony switch | IBM | - | Reported | top500.orgcisl.ucar.edu |
| Operating system | IBM AIX Operating systems Unix (System V-derived) · Proprietary AIX | IBM | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
NCAR's IBM p690 cluster, commissioned on 31 October 2002 and in service until 5 March 2007. It started as 38 frames of 32 POWER4 1.3 GHz processors (1,216 processors, 6.323 TFlop/s peak) on IBM's Colony interconnect, and was upgraded in fall 2003 to 50 frames, 1,600 processors and 8.32 TFlop/s peak. TOP500 ranked the original configuration tenth on the November 2002 list at 3,164 GFlop/s Rmax, which is the entry recorded here. NCAR's page does not give the physical location, so no site is linked. TOP500 is the only source for Rmax, so the tier is reported.
Timeline
- 2002-10 First operational source
- 2002-11 List debut at #10 (November 2002) source
- 2007-03-05 Decommissioned 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
- 2026-10-02 Added Bluesky, NCAR's IBM p690 cluster, tenth on the November 2002 TOP500
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 | does not name this system | - |
| cisl.ucar.edu | 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.
Programming a supercomputer
The software stack beneath the application, and why the OS is now a sovereignty signal as much as a technical choice.