IBM To Unveil Supercomputer

[TotalRecall]

IBM will soon unveil its new supercomputer, named ASCI White. Here are some details:

The new classified supercomputer will be used to model nuclear explosions and ensure the safety of the nation's nuclear stockpile. ASCI White is powered by 8,192 IBM Power3 microprocessors capable of 12.3 trillion calculations per second, say laboratory officials.

ASCI White, costing the federal government US$110 million, is the latest supercomputer to be funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE plans to create a three-dimensional simulation enabling scientists to maintain the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons being stored, according to a statement.

IBM hopes to upgrade the computers with time, making them more powerful with hopes of reaching 100 trillion calculations per second by 2005. Read more here (http://www.techextreme.com/perl/story/12816.html).

[qualico]

Sounds like a great DOOM platform.

[-Memnoch-]

It kinda sucks to think that a major investment by our government , IBM and its developers that create such a fantastic machine will now be used with the goal of perfecting a nuclear device.

Not study genes or solve problems of space travel. But to create a better bomb. Not to serve man but to insure his demise. To vadidate it.

I think of all the things just the people in these forums could think of to use such a machine for. Nuclear bombs just seems so typical of the government.

Just my thoughts:
I hope the thing is the buggiest piece of crap IBM ever made. I hope it only runs on a Microsoft OS that has tons of security holes and that requires years of costly updates.