Titan, the U.S. Department of Energy's top open science
computer, is going live on Monday with an upgrade that will
likely make it the fastest supercomputer on the planet. At 20
petaflops -- that's 20 quadrillion calculations each second --
Titan outperforms by four petaflops the DOE's Sequoia
supercomputer, which has held the crown since June. The official
"Top 500" ranking of the world's fastest supercomputers will be
announced next month. The United States is back on top of the
computing world after ceding ground to Japan, China and Germany
over the past three years. That's not just a badge of honor:
It's also critical to national security and the country's
economic viability. Titan will help U.S. scientists pioneer
research into climate change, biofuels, nuclear energy, new
materials and other crucial fields, which will help them create
the next wave of car batteries, switchgrass ethanol and improved
weather forecasting tools -- all developed in America. Formerly
known as Jaguar, the Cray ( supercomputer