Livermore Supercomputer Named Most Powerful in the World

June 27, 2005 -- The "Top 500" list of the world’s fastest supercomputers ranked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's BlueGene/L System, from IBM, the world's most powerful computer.

Supercomputers use microprocessors to speed up the time it takes to solve in-depth tasks, such as simulating weather systems, earthquakes, and chemical reactions in molecules.

Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing, a recent report from the National Research Council, identifies U.S. needs for supercomputing to strengthen national defense capabilities and improve future economic competitiveness. The federal government should provide stable, long-term funding for research, and support multiple supercomputing hardware and software vendors in order to give scientists and policy-makers better tools to solve problems in areas such as intelligence, nuclear stockpile stewardship, design, manufacturing and climate change research.

• Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing (2004)

• Top 500 Press Release
• Top 500 Supercomputer Site