IBM and Sun Microsystems announced yesterday that they have created a computer system that has the capacity to reach petaflop speeds. Petaflop is just a twenty dollar word for the ability to do one quadrillion calculations per second, which is approximately 100,000 times faster than the ordinary home computer. In fact, IBM's Blue Gene/P supercomputer reportedly functions at a speed of 3 petaflops.
This is enormous news. For one, the new supercomputers are up to seven times more enegery efficient than the current generation of supercomputers. For another, the ability to process so many calculations in such a short period of time has huge implications for organizations that process large numbers of data, organizations like banks and national security organizations.
It makes a fellow wonder what the next generation of supercomputers will be able to do.
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