Gore To Announce Fastest Computer (FWD)

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

How about using the computer for perhaps 1 or 2 seconds at least once a year
to process election ballots using YES/NO votes and number votes (1, 2, etc.)
(instead of schemes to destroy all life on the planet) ?
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Gore To Announce Fastest Computer

By KALPANA SRINIVASAN

.c The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- IBM has developed the world's fastest computer, capable of
performing 3.9 trillion operations a second and simulating a nuclear bomb
test, government officials said Tuesday. 

The development was to be announced Wednesday at the White House. The new
supercomputer, dubbed ``Pacific Blue'' and built for the Department of Energy,
will enable scientists to maintain the reliability of atomic weapons
stockpiles without having to conduct nuclear tests, the officials said,
speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The new computer runs 15,000 times faster and has 80,000 times more memory
than the average desktop personal computer, the officials said. Complex
calculations that would normally consume months of time -- even on other
advanced computers -- can be completed in just days with the new high-speed
machine, they said. 

The primary mission of the supercomputer is to ensure the safety, security and
reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile using simulations and faster
calculations rather than tests, the officials said. 

But it also might be used in other areas, such as helping predict climate
changes and designing airplanes. 

Many of the major recent drug advances in health care have been driven by high
performance computers. The new IBM model could play a role there, the
officials said, helping identify compounds that are likely to succeed in
clinical tests and freeing scientists from having to try unnecessary
combinations in the lab. 

Vice President Al Gore was to announce the advance Wednesday as part of a
White House event highlighting technology developments. 

AP-NY-10-27-98 2207EST