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NASA boosts supercomputer speed

NASA has upgraded its SGI Origin supercomputer. The supercomputer has 1,024 processors, which are being bumped up to faster MIPS R14000A microprocessors running at 600MHz, SGI said Tuesday. NASA is using the computer to study aeronautics, earth sciences and life sciences. The upgrade boosts the system from 819.2 gigaflops--that is, 819.2 billion calculations per second--to 1228.8 gigaflops of theoretical peak speed, said John Ziebarth, chief of the advanced supercomputing division at NASA Ames Research Center.

Margaret Kane Former Staff writer, CNET News
Margaret is a former news editor for CNET News, based in the Boston bureau.
Margaret Kane
NASA has upgraded its SGI Origin supercomputer. The supercomputer has 1,024 processors, which are being bumped up to faster MIPS R14000A microprocessors running at 600MHz, SGI said Tuesday.

NASA is using the computer to study aeronautics, earth sciences and life sciences. The upgrade boosts the system from 819.2 gigaflops--that is, 819.2 billion calculations per second--to 1228.8 gigaflops of theoretical peak speed, said John Ziebarth, chief of the advanced supercomputing division at NASA Ames Research Center.