ASCI Red was a supercomputer built for Sandia by Intel so not exactly COTS. Beowulf was still in the experimental phase. Researchers were building 5-20 node cl

ASCI Red was a supercomputer built for Sandia by Intel so not exactly COTS. Beowulf was still in the experimental phase. Researchers were building 5-20 node clusters. IIRC, there weren't any Beowulf clusters you would consider supercomputer at that time. Keep in mind the fastest supercomputer at the time cost $400 million and this one cost just $5 million.