ASC Purple

The computer was a collaboration between IBM Corporation and Lawrence Livermore Lab.

The contract for this computer along with the Blue Gene/L supercomputer was worth US $290 million.

As of November 2009, the computer ranked 66th on the TOP500 supercomputer list.

The computer consumed 7.5 MW of electricity, including cooling.

It was built as stage five of the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (ASC) started by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration to build a simulator to replace live WMD testing following the moratorium on testing started by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 and extended by Bill Clinton in 1993.