IBM supercomputer to predict Olympic weather

PEOPLE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE OLYMPICS - and there must be some out there although I've yet to meet one - will be excited to discover that IBM has provided the Beijing Meteorological Bureau (BMB) with a weather forecasting supercomputer. The system is said to be capable of providing individual hourly forecasts for each of 44,000 square kilometres.

The tin box will provide ten times the power of the BMB's current weather forecasting system, IBM said. And, in addition to providing hourly forecasts, will also be used to help predict air quality in the Beijing area during the games.

The 80-node IBM System p575 employs Power5+ processors and can deliver peak performance of 9.8 teraflops. This initial configuration of the system would rank it among the ten fastest supercomputers in China, apparently. µ