Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Wow. HP is building a Linux behemoth for the US Dept of Energy. Specifically:

Hewlett-Packard has won a U.S. Department of Energy contract to build a $24.5 million environmental-research supercomputer that HP says will be the world's most powerful Linux-based system.

The 8.3 teraflop machine -- roughly 8,300 times faster than a current personal computer -- would be the second most powerful supercomputer in the world, if it were running today. The supercomputer, which consists of 1,400 McKinley and Madison Intel Itanium Family Processors, is scheduled to go online in 2003 at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in southeast Washington state.

The HP supercomputer will be 30 times faster, have 50 times more disk space and 10 times more memory than the PNNL's current IBM supercomputer, built in 1997. The new supercomputer will have 1.8 terabytes of memory and 170 terabytes of disk space. . . .

Again, Wow, thats one serious machine, wonder why the US Dept of Energy needs it, hmmm, maybe they need to have it dole out more stupid energy policies by consulting Enron supercomputers and collectively deciding how we can artificially prolong our self induced pertroleum problems by avoiding real energy solutions and simply drilling for that thar oil in previously off limits nature sanctuaries for relatively small amounts of oil that will not benefit the overall supply much but certainly will benefit the oil companies? Supercomputer, yeah, that will help (undeserved jab, I know, the dept did not establish the current administrations policies, and the department does real work, etc, I know, just kind of ironic still.)