World's fastest supercomputer

IBM has developed a one-petaflop su­percomputer, 'Roadrunner: that runs on open-source Linux software from Red Hat. The computer is built for the US De­partment of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. It will primarily be used to ensure the safety and reliabil­ity of the US' nuclear weapons stockpile and for research into astronomy, ener­gy, human genome science and climate change. It cost about $100 million, and is twice as fast as the current No.1 IBM Blue Gene system.