IBM builds new climate supercomputer

NEW YORK — IBM Corp. is announcing Thursday that it has built the world's fastest supercomputer for climate study, using technology designed in Austin, Texas, to boost research into how climate change affects severe weather such as hurricanes and droughts.

The machine dubbed "Bluefire," is IBM's first water-cooled supercomputer in the United States. It will be used by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado to create the country's next model for predicting climate change, the company said.

"Increasingly fast machines are vital to research into such areas as climate change and the formation of hurricanes and other severe storms," said Tom Bettge, director of operations and services for NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory.

Researchers will also use the Big Blue computer to study future rain patterns, changes to growing seasons and ways to improve forecasts of dangerous weather.

Bluefire's climate simulations will be used for the next global warming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Bluefire is the first of a new class of supercomputer called the Power 575 Hydro-Cluster, IBM said. It uses more than 3,700 POWER6 microchips, 12 terabytes of memory and can process 76 trillion calculations per second — the same work would take a person with a calculator more than 60 million years.

Much of Bluefire's technology was designed at IBM's Integrated Systems Design facility in Austin, including the microprocessors, power systems, processor boards and other components. Other work was done at New York locations.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said that when fully operational, the computer will rank among the top 25 most powerful supercomputers.

Bluefire's water-based cooling system is a third more efficient that traditional air-cooled systems, the company said. The technology removes heat using water-chilled copper plates in contact with each processor.

David Ho is a New York correspondent for Cox Newspapers.