Europe's fastest supercomputer unveiled in Germany
![(From L to R) Chairman of IBM Germany Martin Jetter, chairman of the Juelich research centre Achim Bachem, Germany's Education and Science Minister Annette Schavan, North Rhine-Westphalia State Premier Juergen Ruettgers and director of the Institute for Advanced Simulation Thomas Lippert in front of the "Jugene" supercomputer in Juelich, western Germany. Chairman of IBM Germany Martin Jetter (left) with other officials in front of the "Jugene" supercomputer](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2009/chairmanofib.jpg)
A new supercomputer with the power of 50,000 home PCs -- the fastest in Europe and the third worldwide -- was unveiled on Tuesday in Germany.
The "Jugene," capable of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) calculations per second, ranks behind the "Roadrunner" and "Jaguar" computers in the United States, said Kosta Schinarakis from the Juelich research centre, where the computer is located.
Jugene will be used for a wide variety of operations, including research on fuel cells for electric cars, weather forecasting and the origins of the universe, the centre said.
The machine is no ordinary PC, requiring 295,000 processors located in 72 lockers each the size of a telephone box.
(c) 2009 AFP