posted on May 12, 2004 09:24:13 PM new
WASHINGTON - Viewing supercomputers as crucial to scientific discovery, the Energy Department will announce plans Wednesday to build the world's fastest computer at a research laboratory in Tennessee.
The supercomputer to be built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be funded over the initial two years by federal grants totaling $50 million.
The project submitted by Oak Ridge scientists envisions a computer capable of sustaining 50 trillion calculations per second.
The program will attempt to develop a computer that will surpass Japan's Earth Simulator, built by NEC in 2002 and capable of sustaining nearly 36 trillion calculations per second. Some computers have reached many times that speed, but not on a sustained basis.
