Fastest Supercomputer in the World Models Dark Matter, HIV Family Tree Simultaneously
Petaflop power in action In November of last year, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory switched on Roadrunner, the world's fastest computer. IBM and the Department of Energy built the machine to model nuclear explosions, but two new studies, both released today, are proof that the computer's massive power has been at least as devoted to peaceful science as to simulating thermonuclear weapons. In one experiment, the Roadrunner created the largest family tree of HIV ever produced. The family tree incorporated over 10,000 HIV DNA sequences culled from over 400 infected subjects. And in another use, Roadrunner simulated the Big Bang in an attempt to figure out how dark matter came to pervade the universe. For the HIV study, Roadrunner donated its processing power to allow scientists to compare the ecosystem of viruses across a number of different patients. A single person can have as many...