Livermore System Remains Most Powerful in World, Reaches Benchmark

July 6, 2006 -- The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's BlueGene/L System, a joint development of IBM and the U.S. Department of Energy, is still the world's most powerful computer. Recently the system reached a benchmark performance of 280.6 teraflops, or trillions of calculations per second. It is the only system to pass the 100-teraflop mark.

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 2004 report from the National Research Council, identifies the United States' supercomputing needs to strengthen national defense capabilities and improve future economic competitiveness. The federal government should provide stable, long-term funding for research and support multiple domestic suppliers of supercomputing hardware and software. Doing so will give scientists and policymakers better tools to solve problems in areas such as defense intelligence, nuclear stockpile stewardship, manufacturing, and climate change research.

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

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