IBM and NCSA abandon plans for petaflop-speed computer

IBM and the University of Illinois' NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) have abandoned major plans to build a petaflop-speed supercomputer, citing unforeseen complexities and greater-than-anticipated costs.

As of 6 August, IBM had terminated its four-year 2008 Blue Waters contract, reportedly worth $208m (£127m).

The technology giant had been expected to deliver the first version of the system as early as the middle of 2012.

Once completed, it would have been placed near the top of the twice-yearly Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers.

"The innovative technology that IBM ultimately developed was more complex and required significantly increased financial and technical support by IBM beyond its original expectations," a joint statement read. "NCSA and IBM worked closely on various proposals to retain IBM's participation in the project, but could not come to an agreement regarding the path forward."

The termination of the deal will see IBM return all the money it has so far received, while NCSA will return all IBM's equipment.

However, IBM and NCSA still plan to work together on future petascale computing projects.

Co-funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois, the Blue Waters project planned to build a Power7 processor-based machine capable of a quadrillion floating point operations per second (a petaflop).

Researchers were planning to use the computer for advanced simulation and tasks in fields such as physics, materials science, meteorology and biology, among others.

IBM declined to comment beyond the statement.