You Rang ??
Posted on 01/24/2008 12:44:24 PM PST by CarrotAndStick
MOSCOW: A Russian university has bought one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, the first time that such sophisticated technology has been exported to the former Soviet Union, makers IBM said on Thursday.
The Moscow State University has selected a Blue Gene device capable of 27.8 trillion operations per second to use in research on nanotechnology and scientific applications such as modelling the heart, an IBM spokesman said. "This agreement with IBM heralds a new era of supercomputing in Russia," said Viktor Sadovnichiy, rector of the university, in a statement.
The world's most powerful supercomputer is a Blue Gene device owned by the US Department of Energy and used at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to model the ageing of the US nuclear weapons stockpile and predict potential problems. IBM said the supercomputer sold to Moscow university would be among the 50 most powerful supercomputers in the world but had received an export licence from US authorities and would be used "purely for scientific research".
The Department of Computational Mathematics at the Moscow university paid around $5 million for two racks of the supercomputer, which can run 2,600 times faster than the fastest home PC and should be operational by April 2008. Because of advances in technology, each rack of the supercomputer is about the size of a US domestic fridge and additional racks can be added as requirements grow. The Blue Gene version used by the US government is almost 20 times more powerful than the one bought by Moscow.
Now they can really ramp up the graphics on World of Warcraft.
Just consider this Nakita’s rope.
Ah the wonders of foreign trade.
Does IBM have any idea what uses a super-computer can be put to, that might be detramental to our nation down the road?
Oh, that’s right. The Russians are our FRIENDS.
Don't blame IBM. It was the US Govt that granted them an export license for this technology.
As long as the Russkies sumbitches promised, then that's OK. /sarc
Really, how f'ing stupid are we? Maybe they're not the enemy they once were, but they're not exactly allied to us like the English. C'mon, at least stop it for a couple of years. We are fools.
I’m already getting spam from that machine.
Oh please... can’t I blame them just a little? LOL
Look, you’ll get no arguement from me there. It’s one of the reasons why I vote for republicans every four years. I know they’re there to help.
Not this year bud.
Is it faster than a Blue Dress?
Ok, Comrades, let’s see how we can use this baby to exterminate the American-ski’s...purely for scientific reasons, of course.
Sure it will...
Truth be known, this is probably a pay-off for some service rendered to the U.S. somewhere in Europe or Asia.
Seems a bit odd. However, Moscow State is one of the leading theoretical scientific institutions in the world.
i smell a russian version of the scam nigerians have perfected.
They'll relocate their headquarters to Shanghai long before that becomes an issue. ;)
I thought Cray had the most powerful super computer model, IBM’s is just scalable. Are they slipping?
No, the article isn’t about THE most powerful supercomputer. It’s only about Russia buying ONE of the most powerful ones. It’s more about Russia possessing a top-ranking supercomputer than it is about the most ‘super’ supercomputer. I’m not sure about the rankings of supercomputers.
LOL, you’re not helping my paranoia. Who is going to pay for my Xanax buster?
IMO, the blueprints (or snaps) for that thing are already in China, if Russia has already taken delivery.
Ahh-so.
Russians have always loved American BlueGenes.
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