Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial

Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial 114

Posted by Zonk on Monday August 06, 2007 @01:48AM from the bidding-is-just-another-super-element dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to documents accidentally placed on a federal government Web site for a short time last week the national science foundation (NSF) will award the contract to buy a $200M supercomputer in 2011 to IBM. The machine is designed to perform scientific calculations at sustained speed of 1 petaflop. The award is already proving controversial however, with questions being raised about the correctness of the bidding procedure. Similar concerns have also been raised about the award of a smaller machine to Oak Ridge national lab, which is a Department of Energy laboratory, not a site one would expect to house an NSF machine."

Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial

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Because... (Score:5, Funny)

by mr_beanz ( 677482 ) writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @01:51AM (#20127423)

No-one ever got fired for buying IBM!

Is there a supercomputer powerful enough... (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @02:16AM (#20127513)

...to stop Zonk from posting boring, pointless articles?

I'd prefer if HAL didn't open the pod bay doors, if Zonk were out there.

Re:Because... (Score:4, Funny)

by obsolete1349 ( 969869 ) writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @02:29AM (#20127571)

I did . . . Now I have to eat soup at the kitchen down the street... and to keep warm, I have to stand by a trash fire.

petaflop? (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @02:44AM (#20127635)

1 Petaflop?

Were any animal rights activists harmed in the design or manufacture of this computer?

hmmm (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @03:05AM (#20127711)

A NSF machine? I wonder what a Not Safe for Work machine would have on it? PORN!

at least it'll run linux (Score:3, Funny)

by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @03:34AM (#20127829)

Given that IBM's strategy is to try to run linux on all its hardware, there's a good chance that the supercomputer will be running a version of linux. Expect Ballmer to be sending several chairs by express courier to the NSF in short order.

Re:petaflop? (Score:4, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @03:44AM (#20127863)

I hope so.

I just get so mad at them when they try to tell me not to eat animals. If god didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them taste like meat? If he wanted us to eat only vegetables, Wouldn't he make them taste like meat too?

Re:What are the alternatives? (Score:2, Funny)

by Nullav ( 1053766 ) writes: <[Nullav.gmail] [ta] [com]> on Monday August 06, 2007 @04:21AM (#20128009)

"Dude, you're gettin' a Cray!"

Unnecessary (Score:5, Funny)

by fan of lem ( 1092395 ) writes: on Monday August 06, 2007 @04:46AM (#20128075) Journal

Aw c'mon, we all know it will only output 42.

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Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial 114

Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial More Login

Award of $200M Supercomputer To IBM Proving Controversial

Because... (Score:5, Funny)

Is there a supercomputer powerful enough... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Because... (Score:4, Funny)

petaflop? (Score:3, Funny)

hmmm (Score:2, Funny)

at least it'll run linux (Score:3, Funny)

Re:petaflop? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:What are the alternatives? (Score:2, Funny)

Unnecessary (Score:5, Funny)

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