Yesterday it was announced that computer giant IBM are to release the world’s fastest Supercomputer known to man. The beast of a computer, known as Blue Gene/P, is said to be three times more powerful than it’s predecessor the Blue Gene/L, which could reach speeds of up to 280.6 teraflops or 280.6 trillion calculations per second.

Boasting a speed capability measured in “Petaflops”, IBM’s monstrous new creation is packed with 294,912 processors, linked by a high-speed optical network. These processors allow for the Blue Gene/P to access speeds above 1,000 trillion calculations per second! That’s approximately 100,000 times more powerful than a PC!

Well, you may think thats pretty freakin’ fast? Well how about this… The Blue Gene/P can be expanded to house a total of 884,736 processors, allowing for speeds up in the 3,000 trillion calculations per second range!

 Dave Turek, vice president of Deep Computing at IBM said, “Blue Gene/P marks the evolution of the most powerful supercomputing platform the world has ever known,”

 The first machines are being sold to the US government, being installed first in the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

 I know what I want for Christmas this year!