The world’s fastest supercomputer, Pacific Blue also called ASCI White, is up and running at the Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. This latest IBM creation is powered by 8,192 IBM Power3 processors and has 160 terabytes of disc storage. Blue Pacific, with off-the-shelf processors and a souped-up version of IBM's commercial operating system, can process information at 12.3 trillion calculations per second. This supercomputer is being used for nuclear weapon testing. It can simulate nuclear explosions, eliminating the need for live nuclear testing. One of a series of supercomputers commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, Pacific Blue will be used for atomic bomb research.
As Pacific Blue begins operation, IBM announced another even more ambitious supercomputing project: Blue Gene, which will study complex scientific issues ranging from human proteins to global climate change. Blue Gene will take an enormous step beyond Pacific Blue, running on 32 specially constructed CPU chips containing both memory and communication circuits. These chips will make it possible to do more than a quadrillion calculations per second.
To put the speed issues into perspective, Blue Gene will be 500 times faster than Blue Pacific and a thousand times faster than Deep Blue, the computer that beat Garry Kasparov in a world-class chess championship two years ago.
While Pacific Blue will be dedicated to atomic bomb research, Blue Gene will study gene sequences and the complex shapes of human proteins to help scientists better understand diseases and uncover possible cures. It will also be used to study weather and global climate changes, perhaps making breakthroughs in weather prediction mechanisms that so far have eluded our scientists. These scientific endeavors, without a doubt, will better our world.
