According to the Washington Post, IBM will announce today that its Blue Gene/L supercomputer has moved ahead of Japan’s Earth Simulator in speed, posting a working speed of 36.01 teraflops (versus the Earth Simulator’s 35.86 teraflops).
As we’ve covered a few times here on the blog, the spectre of having the Japanese in the top position of the Top 500 Supercomputing Sites list has focused a lot of attention in Congress and the Administration on the current state of high-end computing in the US. Some of the hand-wringing was a little overblown, I think. But, the real positive to come out of all that attention is a growth in understanding amongst policymakers of how crucial a robust computing research community is to national and economic competitiveness. Between the Administration’s efforts behind the “High End Computing Revitalization Task Force” and the Congressional efforts behind the DOE Supercomputing Authorization policymakers have heard repeatedly from members of the research community (in computing, and in all the other disciplines HEC enables and amplifies) and members of industry about the importance of a sustained commitment to HEC research and development. Let’s hope that they’re still receptive now that the US is back in the top slot.