Tennessee may soon house the world’s fastest supercomputer

The arms race in terms of computer power is not one that is set to cease and desist anytime soon. If anything, it does look as though the competition is going to get a whole lot fiercer down the road. What you see above is just for illustration purposes only, depicting a venue that houses an IBM supercomputer, and we have word from US Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee that the Oak Ridge National Laboratory will most probably be the place where the world’s fastest supercomputer will “reside” at three years down the road.

Tennessee will continue to be the home of the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2017. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee announced that Oak Ridge National Laboratory will have the supercomputer named Summit, which will provide five times the performance of the current system, known as Titan and recognized as the world’s fastest computer in November 2012. Summit will support advanced scientific and materials research to improve economic and national security. “Once again the world’s fastest computer will be in the United States, and once again it will be at Oak Ridge,” Alexander said. “Supercomputing has helped Tennessee become a center for advanced manufacturing with the arrival of new companies, including several in the auto industry, creating thousands of good-paying jobs. Tennessee can continue to thrive and create many more good jobs with the use of this new supercomputer.” Summit is expected to create a better understanding of materials research, energy storage and nuclear power.