TORONTO – An IBM-built supercomputer at the University of Toronto is Canada’s fastest and the 16th most powerful “commercially available” computer system in the world, according to a ranking revealed at the annual International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg. Designed by IBM and SciNet, a consortium including UofT, the iDataPlex system (pictured right, courtesy IBM) can process up to 360 trillion calculations per second and has 60,000 times more memory than the average home computer – enough to store the contents of a stack of DVDs more than twice the height of the CN Tower.
“With a high performance computer that is among the top 20 on the planet, [the university] has become one of the world’s premier computational research institutions,” says Paul Young, UofT's VP, research. “The supercomputer will attract researchers from around the world, and will enable us to conduct research in a variety of disciplines that will have a direct and positive impact on society.” Click here for more information.