IBM touts world's fastest supercomputer

NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp. said it has developed the world's fastest computer, putting it back on top after a Japanese supercomputer claimed the title some two years ago.

The world's largest computer company said its Blue Gene/L supercomputer is eight times faster, and consumes 28 times less power per computation than today's fastest supercomputers and surpassed NEC Corp.'s Earth Simulator Center as the world's most powerful supercomputer.

Supercomputers are often used for tasks as diverse as studying weather, developing advanced weapons systems and improving industrial designs.

The Blue Gene/L system reached a peak performance of 36.01 teraflops, eclipsing the top mark of 35.86 teraflops for the Earth Simulator. A teraflop represents one trillion calculations per second.

To be more cost effective, the Blue Gene/L system is about 100th the size of the Earth Simulator and consumers far less power, IBM said.

When completed in 2005, IBM expects this system to top the next list of the Top 500 fastest computers, which is compiled and published twice a year by scientists from the University of Tennessee, NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Mannheim in Germany. The next list is scheduled to be released in November.

NEC's computer in 2002 was tapped as the world's fastest at nearly five times faster than the previous leader, a machine built by IBM, the scientists said then.

However, the company said its largest planned Blue Gene/L machine, which is being built by IBM for delivery to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in early 2005, will occupy 64 full racks, with a peak performance of 360 teraflops.