Developers are working hard on making the "petascale" supercomputer available sometime next year, promising a machine capable of making 1,000 trillion calculations in one second. Scientists are heralding the possible scientific value of such processes, allowing them to look past the difficulty in building and powering such efforts. One petascale computer in particular, dubbed the "Roadrunner" and being developed Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, requires about 4 megawatts of power to run.

The greatest potential in these types of supercomputers is their ability to run simulations in areas like climate change, geology or other areas that rely heavily on modeling and forcasting to create theory. This allows for computation in a virtual environment rather than engaging in arduous experimentation in reality, and also allows for testing of things that would otherwise be impossible to observe - like supernovas, nuclear weapons detonation and earthquake damage.

Labels: Advanced Computing