Tech Shout!

NEC Corp. has announced that it has begun the sale of a supercomputer that is claims to challenge world leaders in the similar business such as IBM and Cray.

Supercomputers are used for advanced research in areas such as space science, environmental simulations and meteorology, which require massive calculations.

Ironically, NEC has not yet made a computer that has reached among the top 10 in global rankings of supercomputers. However, with this latest SX-9 supercomputer, NEC has confirmed that it delivers peak processing performance at a rate of 839 teraflops (each teraflop is a trillion calculations per second).

It is interesting to know that IBM’s BlueGene/L supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California now ranks No.1 with a performance mark of 280.6 teraflops in the latest list of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers.

Supercomputers from Cray and HP are also high on the list of the world’s fastest machines.

It yet remains unclear where the NEX SX-9 supercomputer ranks, because peak processing speed in not necessarily reflected in actual use.

According to Senior Vice President Yoshikazu Maruyama, “This is a superb product. We believe we are at the top in this genre.”

The shiny black NEC SX-9 supercomputer delivers about 13 times the speed of its SX-8 predecessor and consumes less energy than comparable models.

The SX-9 supercomputer which is roughly the size of an instant passport photo booth, rents for a price of 2.98 million yen ($26,000) a month.

In case you are wondering if anyone at all in this world has their hands on this faster than the speed of light computer, then you will be surprised to know that NEC has sold 1,100 of the SX series supercomputers. Out of these around a half of them are now in Japan, a third in Europe and the rest elsewhere in the world.