NOV 17

The Jaguar XT5 computer, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, Tenn. and owned by the Department of Energy was just named the fastest computer in the world by the TOP500 list.  It has a performance speed of 1.759 petaflops or quadrillions of calculations per second and that power is being focused on solving the issues of climate change.

The Jaguar is an open science machine for performing peer-reviewed research.  It is being used to create models and simulations for predicting regional climate change, studying enzymes for developing better ethanol and writing algorithms for fast nuclear reactors that would produce less waste.  A billion hours of processor time have been scheduled for 2010 by users like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.

If you're thinking that the fastest computer in the world should be used for other problems too, don't worry, the Jaguar along with the other supercomputers on the list are also being used for things like nuclear security, developing better medicines and examining the origins of the universe, among other things.

Oak Ridge hosts four of the supercomputers on the list, including Kraken which was number three in the world with a speed of 831 teraflops.  Where the human brain's processing performance ends, these supercomputers pick up, allowing tons of information to be sorted, processed and analyzed.  With all of the challenges facing us in tackling climate change, it's nice to have them on our side.

via AP

Comments (11)

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Jive turkey
written by Gilbert, November 17, 2009

I guess this does sound fast. But is it anywhere near the speeds of the new MacBook Pro ?

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Redundant?
written by Sean, November 18, 2009

What I'm thinking is, climate change isn't a problem to be solved, it's a cyclical fact of a billions of years old planet that has developed all of the technological advancements we could only ever hope to replicate, and done so cleanly, sustainably, using the same materials for those same billions of years. The "problem" is in our collective self-importance only.

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...
written by sg, November 18, 2009

EcoGeek, keep writing. I read your articles and am amazed at what keeps developing in this world. I read the articles and not the comments.

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What?
written by Rotator, November 20, 2009

Why do the boots so always seem to fit the shoe which walks in the wetness first?

Boots follow the wetness, like a sow follows the hay, but beware of the jumping ant, this fellow he can jump onto your leg without the knowings of it until you feel the sharp pains of ant sting.

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Wow
written by Richard, November 20, 2009

Wow. Now this is certainly great news. At least now we know that the world really is concerned of directly focused on the issue of climate change.

Nice post!

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Incredible
written by Green Ninja, November 20, 2009

Let's hope that it can spit out the answers to all these great problems as quickly as we want to input them.

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Computer Speeds
written by Kyle, November 21, 2009

Impressive how the computer speeds are measured in petaflops. That picture of the Jaguar looks very cool.

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Hoping the climatic modelling is better reviewed...
written by Keith Marlow, November 28, 2009

Hmm, anybody been following the climategate discussions?? (basically 'tweaked' source datasets and a hacker gaining access to 10 years worth of emails and data from the CRU, seems to indicate suspect science). I really hope that if computers like these are going to be used to work out what is really going on that we do not get a repeat of what looks to have happened with the famous hockey stick graph.. There is more info on the linked website.

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written by plumber Hitchin, June 07, 2011

Well.. no doubt that this was a mind blowing job.

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Great News!
written by Rob, June 08, 2011

Unfortunately our brains have limited capabilities... These fast computers will serve humanity for many generations to come and they will do things that no single man on this earth is capable of.

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a
written by Sanovnik, February 05, 2012

This is fastest one????

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