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The Most Powerful Computer on Earth

guardian.co.uk — IBM's latest supercomputer crunches numbers at enormous speeds--and will soon be put to use for nuclear warfare.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 13, 2008

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  • Rabbittt, on 06/13/2008, -2/+93This thing will sit on my desk in 10 years..
  • refreshers, on 06/13/2008, -8/+95I haven't look at the specs yet but can it play Crysis?
  • seanmx, on 06/13/2008, -1/+77I'm gonna wait for the 2nd gen model to get one.
  • MrRobotoSki, on 06/13/2008, -7/+75Finally a computer put to use doing something useful like figuring out the fastest way to decimate the world. Through nuclear warfare, of course!
  • clarionhaze, on 06/13/2008, -4/+62Would you like to play a game?
  • RandomEyes, on 06/12/2008, -7/+49"It will analyse how HIV vaccines should best be administered"
    shouldn't this super computer wait until there is a vaccine? crazy new psychic computers
  • d3lta, on 06/13/2008, -3/+42You know, you don't have to attach a thumbnail, especially a misleading one
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -4/+35take THAT, Russia!
  • citizenchan, on 06/13/2008, -1/+31Yeah, but can it seed torrents.
  • Icecream, on 06/13/2008, -2/+31I don't think they will give it to you, even if you ask nicely.
  • ScaredOfTheMan, on 06/13/2008, -1/+29What are you talking about that Sir, is the worlds most powerful 35 mm slide scanner, for six month it will direct its formidable scanning power at your old negatives from the 80s. It is guaranteed to uncover at least one embarrassing picture which will surely make its way to flikr, and then ultimately Digg.
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -1/+25"Alan Dix, professor of computing at Lancaster University, said that by rough calculations, Roadrunner was possibly only five to 50 times less powerful than the human brain."
    Wait.
    Why am I not acing my maths tests?
  • m0tbaillie, on 06/13/2008, -6/+29"For six months, the computer will direct its formidable processing power at scientific problems. It will analyse how HIV vaccines should best be administered, and map the region of the human brain that governs vision.

    In another series of tests, it will churn out data on whether firing laser beams into plasmas will trigger nuclear fusion, which advocates believe could one day bring us almost limitless cheap energy. Other projects will focus on testing and improving the accuracy of climate change models.

    The first six months will give operators time to get used to the machine, and to iron out any bugs and glitches, before it begins its real task of providing classified data to help assess the safety, and readiness, of the US nuclear arsenal. "

    It's doing a bit more than just calculating the effects of nuclear war. And, I'm sure that won't be the only thing it does. A machine with that amount of computing capacity will be time-leased to the highest bidder by the government, I'm sure.
  • RandomCommenter, on 06/13/2008, -8/+29HA! I knew a million billion was a real number
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -7/+26I bet its slow running vista.
  • InfiniteNothing, on 06/13/2008, -0/+17Slow operating system
  • netdroid9, on 06/13/2008, -0/+16You'd need to seal in the magic smoke pretty tightly to pull that off.
  • MasterThief117, on 06/13/2008, -2/+18Nothing can play Crysis at full.
  • chudgoo, on 06/13/2008, -0/+15Wow. Failed submission.

    "put to use for nuclear warfare"?? and the thumbnail makes no sense.

    ALSO , It's been on the front page a dozen times this week. (i also work in the bldg next to the one where roadrunner is located and want to punch that thing in the nose. if it had one.)
  • dxgg, on 06/13/2008, -3/+18I can't believe nobody's said this already:

    42!
  • 1988hannah, on 06/13/2008, -2/+17Wrong, the answer is 42. The Earth was built to calculate the question. ^_^
  • thaddeusj, on 06/13/2008, -0/+14-> GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR_
  • sin667, on 06/13/2008, -3/+17How 'bout a nice game of chess?
  • CSharpSauce, on 06/13/2008, -0/+13Man can you imagine how many little gerbils they have in that thing
  • thcobbs, on 06/13/2008, -1/+14Would you rather us do our nuclear testing.... "live"?

    I'd rather have a computer SIMULATE the effects of a nuclear weapon that set one off and go take a peek.
  • superpezgeek2, on 06/13/2008, -1/+13you must have a pretty big desk...
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+12wait for the service pack
  • CSharpSauce, on 06/13/2008, -2/+14Hey if AK-47's could make calculations... they'd be kicking our asses
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+11I disagree, it will be implanted in the skull of a terminator cyborg and will be hunting us like rabbits in 10 years.
  • thcobbs, on 06/13/2008, -0/+11There are several vaccines available for HIV... its just that since its an RNA virus, it mutates extremely fast and therefore the vaccines aren't viable for long.

    A computer could help maximize the long-term benefits of a vaccine by figuring out how to distribute it quickly and widely enough to get the most "bang for the buck".
  • adent1066, on 06/13/2008, -5/+15Buried as inaccurate. Everyone knows that the most powerful computer on Earth is in fact the Earth which was built to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
  • blechler, on 06/13/2008, -0/+10Only in the UK.
  • PabloMac, on 06/13/2008, -5/+15PabloMac wants to digg your comment. Allow or deny?
  • RyeBrye, on 06/13/2008, -2/+11I found a backdoor... It's "joshua"
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+9Where can I buy Life 10.6?
  • citizenchan, on 06/13/2008, -0/+9He's right tho.
  • mathcreative, on 06/13/2008, -0/+9Nope, needs a videocard.
  • fugeelama, on 06/13/2008, -0/+9Greetings Dr. Falken...
  • terajoule, on 06/13/2008, -0/+8Does it make coffee?
  • evanfrey, on 06/13/2008, -0/+8How about a nice game of chess?
  • thcobbs, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7That was awful phrasing. The PPC Cell processors designed by IBM were first USED in game systems, but they were designed specifically for high throughput MIMD operations.... Such as environmental simulations of Nuclear blasts, decoding encrypted communications, etc.
  • jemminger, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7inaccurate. will be used to simulate nuclear explosions, not "for nuclear warfare"
  • yaosio, on 06/13/2008, -1/+8So did you read the article or decide it's for blowing people up MrRobotSki? Oh wait, you did not bother to read the article. It's not for testing new nukes. Go back to 1st grade and learn how to read before making a fool of yourself.
  • tkstock, on 06/13/2008, -0/+6Yeah, but it only has a dial-up connection to the internet.
  • disher91, on 06/13/2008, -0/+6Would you like to play a game?

  • eviljolly, on 06/13/2008, -0/+6I wonder how many people actually got that...
  • orangefly, on 06/13/2008, -0/+6TIC-TAC-TOE
    number of players?
    0
  • megaton, on 06/13/2008, -2/+8I don't know why you're being dugg down: you're absolutely right.

    The summary is sensationalist and wrong.
  • aaabatteries, on 06/13/2008, -3/+9third time on digg, eh?
  • nem0, on 06/13/2008, -0/+5The only solution is not to play.
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