I recently read a little short story in GQ Magazine (Britain) about the latest supercomputer being developed by IBM. It will utilize cell processors like those found in the Playstation 3 (16,000 of them), and it will supposedly safeguard the US nuclear arsenal. The supercomputer is said to be the size of 3 basketball courts and will be housed in the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Oh, and its menacing codename is Roadrunner.

It is frightening to think about the idea that with a mere 16,000 Playstation 3’s (granted, at a cost of about $600 each, that adds up to a staggering $9,600,000; but hey, there are those of us that can afford that; not me, but some people can…) your average joe, with moderate computer knowledge may be able to create the fastest computer known to man. Well actually, since IBM is already doing that, why not splurge on an extra PS3 and make yours the fastest! Feel free to let me know if you or your friends achieve this…

Either way, I can’t even begin to imagine how powerful the cell processor must really be! Honestly though, I cannot see it in the Playstation 3’s performance. If you ran the PS3 and X-Box 360 side by side, I couldn’t really even see the difference. But hey, crapping on the PS3 should have its own post dedicated solely to that topic. I will just leave you with this image: