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The Decommissioned Cheyenne Supercomputer and Its Legacy
Recently, the US General Services Administration initiated an auction for the decommissioned Cheyenne supercomputer, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 2016, this remarkable 5.34-petaflop supercomputer ranked as the 20th most powerful system globally. The auction, which commenced at $2,500, has now reached a bid of $27,643 with the reserve price yet to be met.
The Impact of Cheyenne
Operating officially from January 12, 2017, to December 31, 2023, at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, Cheyenne significantly advanced atmospheric and Earth system sciences research. This powerful and energy-efficient system provided over 7 billion core-hours of operation, serving more than 4,400 users and supporting nearly 1,300 NSF awards. Beyond research, Cheyenne played a vital role in education by facilitating over 80 university courses and training events while supporting nearly 1,000 projects for early-career graduate students and postdocs.
Moreover, research powered by Cheyenne led to over 4,500 peer-reviewed publications, dissertations, theses, and other works. Despite being scheduled for replacement after five years, external factors such as supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to Cheyenne fulfilling an extra two years of service before it was decommissioned for auction.
Technical Specifications and Energy Efficiency
The SGI ICE XA system boasted a peak performance of 5,340 teraflops and operated at 4,788 Linpack teraflops. Achieving over 3 billion calculations per second for every watt consumed, Cheyenne demonstrated remarkable energy efficiency, outperforming its predecessor Yellowstone by threefold. With 4,032 dual-socket nodes equipped with 18-core, 2.3-GHz Intel Xeon E5-2697v4 processors, the system showcased a total of 145,152 CPU cores. It also featured 313 terabytes of memory and 40 petabytes of storage, consuming approximately 1.7 megawatts of power when fully operational.
For comparison, the world’s current top-rated supercomputer, Frontier at Oak Ridge National Labs, boasts a theoretical peak performance of 1,679.82 petaflops per second, with 8,699,904 CPU cores and 22.7 megawatts of power consumption.
Auction Details and Considerations
Potential buyers interested in acquiring Cheyenne should be aware of the necessity for professional movers with suitable equipment to handle its heavy racks and components. The auction includes seven E-Cell pairs, each with a cooling distribution unit, with an approximate weight of 1,500 lbs per E-Cell. Additionally, two air-cooled Cheyenne Management Racks, weighing 2,500 lbs each, contain servers, switches, and power units.
As of the latest update, 12 potential buyers have already entered bids for this exceptional computing system. The auction is set to conclude on May 5 at 6:11 pm Central Time. It is important to note that fiber optic and CAT5/6 cabling are excluded from the resale package, as stated on the auction site.
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