IBM 'Blue Gene' Gets New Applications

IBM released new commercial applications for its Blue Gene supercomputer on Friday, which it says will put supercomputing power in the hands of those who may have not been able to afford it previously.

"Clients who need the analytic capability of super-high performance computers can now simply rent time on Blue Gene to run these specialized applications and achieve results never before attainable," said David Gelardi, vice president of deep computing at IBM.

Several companies are already using the system to supplement their computing needs. For example, QuantumBio, a software provider for drug, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies uses the on-demand system instead of installing its own Blue-Gene computer.

Others, like RenderRocket, a 3D rendering company, use Blue Gene to provide 24-hour access to computing power via the Internet. RenderRocket says the time savings by using IBM's system are quite significant: a minute-and-a-half animation for television can take up to 10 days on standard servers, but a project can be rendered in hours using Blue Gene.

Each single Blue Gene system is capable of 5.7 teraflops of performance. The computer takes up less than one square meter of space and also is more power efficient, IBM said. On-demand centers are based in Poughkeepsie, NY, Houston, TX, and Montpellier, France.

Seperately, IBM announced Thursday that its recently-completed 65,536-processor Blue Gene/L, can now operate at 280.6 teraflops, breaking the previous record held by the company for the world's fastest supercomputer.