The TOP500 Organization, which tracks high performance computing, Monday named an IBM supercomputing system as the world's most powerful supercomputer.
IBM said its Blue Gene/L has an unprecedented sustained performance of 280.6 Teraflops, or trillions of floating point calculations per second.

Joining Blue Gene/L in the TOP500 list's top three supercomputers are IBM's Blue Gene Watson system at 91.29 Teraflops, and the recently unveiled Advanced Simulation and Computing program's Purple supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with 63.39 Teraflops.

The Blue Gene/L and ASC Purple systems were developed with the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and are installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in California.

"ASC Purple and Blue Gene/L mark the completion of a 10-year challenge to develop supercomputers for entry-level simulations that support a future free from nuclear testing," said Dimitri Kusnezov, director of the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing Program. "Reaching this point is not only a reflection of the importance of our industrial partnerships, but also of the sustained support of the Department of Energy, NNSA and Congress to the mission."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International