Supercomputers will be measured in a number of methods, however the important statistic is their potential to carry out floating-point operations per second, or flops. Flopping as quick as potential is what makes you profitable. At her peak, Sierra might hit 94.64 petaflops—94.64 quadrillion floating-point operations—per second. El Capitan, at 1.809 exaflops, is about 19 occasions quicker. In late 2025, he was formally declared the world’s quickest supercomputer. Sierra’s juice, Neely says, was now not definitely worth the squeeze.
There was no huge pink button, no large lever, that turned Sierra off. Somebody might’ve simply reduce the cords, certain, however that’s not the really useful process. First, Sierra’s consumer scientists had been warned, through e mail, to save lots of their work. Then a DNR was formally instituted—no new components.
The decommissioning proceeded in phases, beginning with the compute nodes and the rack switches—administration nodes are final, since they’re wanted till the very finish. The method entails working scripts that, digitally, shut the pc down, after which exhausting energy switches are flipped off too. There’s additionally a dehydration. When she was alive, Sierra might get fairly sizzling, so the lab recirculated 1000’s of gallons of water per minute, funneled by way of veiny pipes that got here up from beneath her floorboards. As she approached dying, that water needed to be drained. It was examined by security workers first, to make sure it was an environmentally wholesome pH.
