The Sequoia super-computer in Livermore, Calif., is the fastest
computer… (IBM ) In the race to build the fastest computer in
the world, America is back on top. On Monday, a super-computer
designed by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA), took the first spot on the Top 500 list, a list that
comes out twice a year ranking the 500 fastest computers on the
planet. It is the first time the U.S. has topped the list since
November 2009. The winning super-computer is called Sequoia, and
it is housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
Livermore, Calif. Sequoia will be used to build complex models
that let scientists test the nation's stockpile of nuclear
weapons without having to do nuclear testing in the real world.
So how fast is the fastest computer in the world? Well,
according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, it
would take 6.7 billion people working with hand-held calculators
320 years to do the same calculation that Sequoia could power
through in just one hour.