Rodent Regatta

ASCI Purple is the machine the bomb physicists have been waiting for, said Bruce Goodwin, a physicist who directs the nuclear weapons program at the Livermore lab. For the first time, they will have the horsepower to achieve their dream of a realistic 3D simulation of an exploding hydrogen bomb, a simulation that will take two months of around-the-clock computing to create.

Dan Stober reports for The Mercury News and has uncovered a DOE contract that will allow IBM to recapture the top spot in the list of the 500 fastest computers.