A new super computer assembled for the U.S. military by IBM scientist from parts originally designed for computer gaming
surpassed the long sought threshold of computing speed at 1.025 quadrillion calculations per second. The super computer's speed is more than twice that of IBM Blue Gene/L.The Blue Gene computer is based in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Built at a cost of $133 million , the super computer is named Roadrunner,after the state bird of New Mexico. The latest super computer is a product of IBM engineers and scientists based in Los Alamaos National Laboratory and is intended to monitor and solved problems arising from the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons, principally to ensure their continuous operational capability as they age. Compters are used to simulate nuclear weapon's behavior during the first few seconds after detonation. The speed of the super computer will equally be useful for non-military applications such as exploring problems concerning climate change, where it will be utilized before transferring it to a classified environment.This will provide scientists studying the effects of Global Warming greater accuracy and speed twice than what it's predecessor can offer in studying global climate models.To illustrate it's power, speed.and accuracy, Thomas P. Agostino, administrator of the National Security Administration said, if all the world's population are given hand calculators and are tasked to perform mathematical calculations twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. It would require forty six years for them to accomplish all the calculations the Roadrunner can in one day. The Holy Grail of super computing-known as petaflop-one thousand trillion calculations per second is a long sought goal of scientific groups in the U.S.,Japan,EU and China. The petaflop has a wide ranging effect in the fields of technology, military and trade, and is a symbol of competitiveness and supremacy in the race for development.