So how much does it take to make the world’s fastest super computer, a.k.a. ‘the world’s fastest computer’? Answer is: ‘A lot !”. Let me tell you this, making the fastest super computer is actually a killer competition. It is complicated and ofcourse, is super-expensive ! But that’s a whole new story.

Let’s come back to the point. For the first time in computer science history, super computer has broken the Petaflop speed barrier ! IBM’s RoadRunner is officially the fastest trailed very closely by Cray’s Jaguar. I guess its just a way Cray wanted to pass the message to IBM, “Blue Dude…you are not alone”. Wired Magazine reports, “But both competitors broke petaflop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 quadrillion floating-point calculations per second, the first two computers to do so.”

If you are thinking, “So what’s the big deal?”. Here’s your answer. “The scientific method has changed for the first time since Galileo invented the telescope (in 1609),” says computer scientist Mark Seager of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

[source: wired.com]