| The Fastest Computer Evah! |
 The Fastest Computer Evah! Thurs, 12 June 2008 Consoles help make the fastest computer ever
 It doesn't look THAT impressive... The computer, nicknamed the 'Roadrunner', is to be used at least initially to simulate nuclear weapons blasts and track warhead aging. However, it could also have applications in civil engineering, medicine, and several other industries.
Some elements of the Roadrunner can be traced back to popular video games, said David Turek, vice president of IBM's supercomputing programs. In some ways, he said, it's "a very souped-up Sony PlayStation 3."
It weighs nearly 230 000kg and its processing speed is roughly equivalent to that of 100 000 of today's most powerful laptops.
"We took the basic chip design (of a PlayStation) and advanced its capability," said Turek. But the Roadrunner supercomputer, named after the New Mexico state bird, is nothing like a video game. - AP The computer is twice as fast as IBM's Blue Gene system, itself reportedly 3 times faster than any other system in the world.
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