Bavarian Science Academy Contracts IBM to Build Supercomputer

IBM has been contracted by German’s Bavarian Science Academy to build a supercomputer able to compute at 3 petaflops. For reference, the current fastest supercomputer computes at 2.66 petaflops. The computer, to be completed in 2012, will be part of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) which is meant to provide supercomputer access for researchers. It will use 14,000 Intel Xeon processors in IBM’s System x iDataPlex servers. Sadly for Germany, by the time it’s built it won’t be the fastest supercomputer. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are each being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to build two 20 petaflop computers, which should be operational in 2012.