HECToR
Corporate brand
UnclaimedA former British national academic supercomputing service built around Cray high-performance computing systems.
Last updated August 25, 2026
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Overview
HECToR, short for High End Computing Terascale Resource, was a United Kingdom national supercomputer service created to provide high-performance computing capacity to academic researchers. It was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and served the wider UK academic community rather than operating as a conventional commercial technology brand. The service was delivered through a partnership involving the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and the Numerical Algorithms Group. The physical supercomputer was installed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Its first production phase entered service in October 2007 as a Cray XT4-based system. The initial installation comprised 60 cabinets, 1,416 compute blades, and 11,328 AMD Opteron processor cores. It offered a peak performance of approximately 59 teraflops and was connected to hundreds of terabytes of RAID storage, later expanded from 576 TB to 934 TB. In 2008, Cray X2 Black Widow vector nodes were added, extending the service's hardware capabilities with a smaller vector-processing subsystem. HECToR was progressively modernized rather than replaced at each stage. A 2009 upgrade replaced the original dual-core processors with quad-core Opterons, increasing the number of cores to 22,656 and raising peak performance to about 208 teraflops. The 2010 Phase 2b enhancement introduced a Cray XT6 component using 12-core Opteron 6100 processors. This brought the combined system to roughly 44,544 cores and more than 360 teraflops, while a later interconnect upgrade replaced the earlier SeaStar2 technology with Cray's Gemini interconnect. The final major configuration was Phase 3, installed during November and December 2011. The XT6 portion was expanded to 30 cabinets and 704 compute blades, and the processors were upgraded to 16-core, 2.3 GHz AMD Opteron Interlagos chips. The resulting configuration contained 90,112 cores and achieved a stated peak performance of more than 800 teraflops. It operated with the Cray Linux Environment, supported multiple compiler families, and provided research software and utilities for parallel scientific computing. HECToR supported computationally intensive work across the UK research system, including disciplines requiring large-scale simulation and numerical analysis. Users could access PGI, PathScale, GNU, and Cray compiler suites through Cray compilation tools. The service was eventually decommissioned and succeeded by ARCHER, which continued the role of a UK academic national supercomputing resource. HECToR is therefore best understood as a publicly funded research-computing service and infrastructure identity, not as a consumer-electronics brand or a standalone commercial company.
History
HECToR was the United Kingdom's High End Computing Terascale Resource, a nationally funded supercomputing service for academic research. Its funding came from EPSRC, NERC, and BBSRC, while operational and technical responsibilities were shared by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and the Numerical Algorithms Group. The service was hosted at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The first HECToR system was commissioned in 2007 and entered service in October of that year. It was based principally on Cray XT4 technology and initially comprised 60 cabinets, 1,416 compute blades, and 11,328 AMD Opteron cores running at 2.8 GHz. The system had a peak performance of 59 teraflops and was connected to 576 TB of RAID storage, subsequently expanded to 934 TB. In August 2008, 28 Cray X2 Black Widow vector nodes were incorporated. Together, their 112 vector processors added a specialized vector-processing capability with a stated peak of 2.87 teraflops. HECToR's first major modernization took place in summer 2009. The XT4 cabinets received quad-core 2.3 GHz Opteron processors and additional memory, doubling the core count to 22,656 and increasing aggregate memory to approximately 45.3 TB. The resulting peak performance was about 208 teraflops. The Phase 2b upgrade in 2010 introduced a 20-cabinet Cray XT6 system using 12-core Opteron 6100 processors. This raised the overall system to approximately 44,544 cores and more than 360 teraflops. Later in the same year, the system's SeaStar2 interconnect was replaced by Cray's Gemini interconnect technology, improving the communications infrastructure used by parallel workloads. The final major expansion, known as Phase 3, was carried out in November and December 2011. The XT6 installation was expanded to 30 cabinets containing 704 compute blades, and its processors were upgraded to 16-core, 2.3 GHz AMD Opteron Interlagos chips. The resulting machine contained 90,112 cores and had a peak performance of more than 800 teraflops. Its operating environment was upgraded to Cray Linux Environment 4.0. HECToR provided more than hardware. The service supplied a managed software environment including compilers, applications, utilities, and tools for large-scale scientific workloads. Supported compiler families included PGI, PathScale, GNU, and Cray suites, with Cray compiler-wrapper commands used to build programs for the compute nodes. This combination of national access, systems support, and parallel-computing software made HECToR an important part of the UK's academic research infrastructure. The service was ultimately retired and replaced by ARCHER. HECToR's identity consequently belongs to a completed national infrastructure program rather than an active commercial brand. Its successive Cray configurations illustrate the rapid scaling of academic high-performance computing during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
- 2011
Phase 3 completed
[1]The final configuration reaches 90,112 cores and more than 800 teraflops of peak performance.
- 2010
Phase 2b XT6 installation
[1]A Cray XT6 system with 12-core Opteron processors is installed, followed by a Gemini interconnect upgrade.
- 2009
Phase 2a processor upgrade
[1]The original XT4 installation is upgraded to quad-core Opterons, reaching 22,656 cores and about 208 teraflops peak performance.
- 2008
Cray X2 vector nodes added
[1]Twenty-eight Cray X2 Black Widow nodes, containing 112 vector processors, extend the system's capabilities.
- 2007
Phase 1 enters service
[1]The first HECToR system becomes operational at the University of Edinburgh as a Cray XT4-based national academic supercomputer.
Service decommissioned
[1]HECToR is retired and its national supercomputing role passes to ARCHER.
Products and positioning
A publicly funded national research-computing resource providing large-scale parallel processing for the United Kingdom academic community.
Cray XT4 supercomputer · 2007
HECToR Phase 1
The initial HECToR configuration was a Cray XT4 system with 60 cabinets, 1,416 compute blades, and 11,328 2.8 GHz AMD Opteron cores. It offered approximately 59 teraflops of peak performance and was backed by hundreds of terabytes of RAID storage.
Processor upgrade · 2009
HECToR Phase 2a
The Phase 2a upgrade replaced the initial processors with quad-core AMD Opterons and increased system memory. The resulting configuration contained 22,656 cores and reached approximately 208 teraflops peak performance.
Cray XT6 supercomputer · 2010
HECToR Phase 2b
Phase 2b added a 20-cabinet Cray XT6 system using 12-core AMD Opteron 6100 processors. It raised the system to roughly 44,544 cores and more than 360 teraflops, with a later upgrade to the Gemini interconnect.
Cray XT6 supercomputer · 2011
HECToR Phase 3
The final major HECToR configuration expanded the XT6 installation to 30 cabinets and 704 compute blades. It used 16-core, 2.3 GHz AMD Opteron Interlagos processors, delivered 90,112 cores, and had peak performance above 800 teraflops.
High-performance computing software
HECToR software environment
HECToR operated with the Cray Linux Environment and offered applications, utilities, and compiler suites from PGI, PathScale, GNU, and Cray. Cray compilation scripts such as ftn, cc, and CC supported development for the compute nodes.
Brand decisions
2011
Adoption of the Phase 3 configurationGeneration changeBackground
Increasing demand for large-scale parallel computing required substantially greater processor capacity and system performance.
Action taken
The Cray XT6 component was expanded and upgraded to 16-core Interlagos processors, while the operating environment moved to Cray Linux Environment 4.0.
Aftermath
HECToR reached more than 800 teraflops of peak performance and 90,112 processor cores before its eventual retirement.
2007
Launch of the HECToR national supercomputing serviceProduct launchBackground
The UK academic community required nationally coordinated access to large-scale computing resources for scientific research.
Action taken
A Cray XT4-based system was installed at the University of Edinburgh and placed into service under a partnership led by UK academic and research organizations.
Aftermath
HECToR became a national platform for computational research and was subsequently expanded through several hardware generations.
- Transition to ARCHERStrategy
Background
The national academic computing service required a successor after HECToR reached the end of its operational life.
Action taken
HECToR was decommissioned and replaced by ARCHER as the UK's successor national academic supercomputing service.
Aftermath
The HECToR name became associated with a completed generation of UK research infrastructure rather than an active service.
Recent events
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