IBM to build fastest ever computer

The world's fastest ever supercomputer is to be built for the US government to help it conduct nuclear safety tests.

Codenamed 'Roadrunner', the system will be capable of sustained computation speeds of up to 1,000 trillion calculations per second, or one petaflop.

The computer is being bought by the US Department of Energy (DoE) for use at its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Los Alamos laboratory, and will be made by IBM.

Bill Zeitler, senior vice president of IBM's Systems and Technology Group, says the new supercomputer demonstrates the vendor's commitment to achieve a major advance in technological capability.

'The new system will help enable scientists and businesses solve the most challenging problems, Los Alamos is a valued partner as we embark on this exciting journey,' he said.

Roadrunner will be the first supercomputer of its kind to use the Cell processor, which was originally designed to be used in the latest generation of video game consoles.

It will surpass the world's current fastest computer, BlueGene/L, which was also built by IBM for the US DoE for its Lawrence Livermore laboratory.

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