A research director at Los Alamos National Laboratories said the addition of a peta-scale supercomputer is as big a leap forward as when scientists got their hands on their first computer ever.

Engineers and technicians at IBM are assembling the final pieces of what they hope will soon become the world's most powerful supercomputer - doubling the speed of the today's fastest machine.

High performance computing is stimulating collaborative research across state - and country - borders.

SGI introduces cool-running blade server system and scores QUT contract.

IBM's Blue Gene/L is still the fastest, but Blue Gene/P is on its mark.

The Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC) has announced details of its next generation supercomputer, which according to executive director John O'Callaghan, has a chance to be one of the top 30 in the world. The supercomputer will provide a computing environment for more than 600 researchers across areas such as the environment, bioinformatics, astronomy, chemistry and physics.

The AUD$20 million flagship project of Tasmania's Intelligent Island initiative funded by the Australian Government and jointly managed with the state government -- the Tasinformatics Centre of Excellence at the University of Tasmania -- is due to get off the ground in the coming weeks, once final negotiations between the university and the state government have been completed.

Apple Computer has outlined its strategy to win the hearts and minds of scientists, during a presentation to select attendees at the BioIT World Conference and Expo in Boston.

The Macintosh may not be an established player is scientific computing, but Apple Computer is beginning to get some respect as a player in the space, according to the company's vice-president of software technology, Guy 'Bud' Tribble, who pitched the case for the Mac to attendees of the Biosilico 2003 conference at Stanford University last week.

Supercomputer maker SGI is trying to extend its lifespan in the high-performance computing (HPC) market with the launch of the Onyx4 UltraVision, an upgraded flagship system it hopes will appeal to life sciences and other researchers keen to get ever more detail in the graphical representation of their data.

Victoria trails Queensland among state governments which are energetically supporting bioscience and needs to fine-tune its Bio 21 initiative, according to one of the bioIT industry's most unusual executives, Michael Armitage.