If you want to own a piece of computing history and have money and space to burn, now's your chance.
The US General Services Administration is currently auctioning the Cheyenne supercomputer, which was deployed at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) back in 2016.
The 5.34-petaflops (Linpack) system was the 20th most powerful supercomputer in the world when it launched, but now would be considered slow and inefficient when compared to cutting edge systems.
Cheyenne was one of the last supercomputers to be deployed by Silicon Graphics International, with the company acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise after Cheyenne was installed but before it was brought online.
The water-cooled supercomputer features SGI ICE XA modules, 28 racks, and 8,064 Intel E5-2697v4 CPUs (for a total of 145,152 cores). It has DDR4-2400 ECC single-rank, 64 GB per node, with 3 High Memory E-Cells having 128GB per node, totaling 313,344GB.
Two air-cooled management racks consist of 26 1U Servers (20 with 128 GB RAM, 6 with 256 GB RAM), 10 Extreme Switches, and 2 Extreme Switch power units. Each rack weighs 2500 lbs.
Fiber and CAT5/6 cabling are not included.
Cheyenne outlived its planned life - with the NWSC's original announcement saying that it would run until 2021 - but has proved too old to continue to maintain.
"The system is currently experiencing maintenance limitations due to faulty quick disconnects causing water spray," the auction listing notes.
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"Given the expense and downtime associated with rectifying this issue in the last six months of operation, it's deemed more detrimental than the anticipated failure rate of compute nodes. Approximately one percent of nodes experienced failure during this period, primarily attributed to DIMMs with ECC errors, which will remain unrepaired. Additionally, the system will undergo coolant drainage."
The GSA believes that the condition of the system is repairable, but warns that much of the equipment is custom SGI gear.
Shipping is not a part of the deal. "Moving this system necessitates the engagement of a professional moving company... The purchaser assumes responsibility for transferring the racks from the facility onto trucks using their equipment."
At nine bids, the system is currently going for $15,740, with the reserve not met. At time of writing, there are three days and eight hours left to bid for the supercomputer.
If you buy it, be sure to reach out and offer us a tour.
