But will the results be applied to anything meaningful? Currently getting just over 70 mpg from my Honda Insight, and I'm still breaking it in. That's almost 3 times the performance of my previous car. As I understand it, there are even more efficient models on the road in Europe that haven't been brought here yet. Can't help thinking the supercomputer will be used to boost performance of existing slovenly models by only a few percentage points. If so, such a waste.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/172/nation/IBM_supercomputer_aims_to_find:.shtml

IBM supercomputer aims to find fuel-efficient auto engine

By Jim Krane, Associated Press, 6/21/2001 04:38

NEW YORK (AP) When it comes to innovations in speed and efficiency, cars are no match for computers.

In the past few decades, autos have shown little improvement in performance per gallon of fuel consumed. In the same period, computing performance has leaped more than a hundredfold without similar increases in use of electricity.

Now, computers are being tapped to help the languishing cars.

At a supercomputing conference Thursday in Germany, IBM was expected to announce that it has built the world's second-most powerful supercomputer, which will be dedicated to researching fuel efficiency in automobiles and other energy-related problems.

The machine, theoretically capable of as many as 3.8 trillion calculations per second, will be installed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Oakland, Calif., IBM said.

The computer will be used to test computer models of internal combustion engines in hopes of finding a model that burns less fuel and emits fewer pollutants, said NERSC spokesman John Hules.

The NERSC machine will also be used in global climate modeling and research into fusion energy, proteins, the environment and biology, Hules said.

In terms of computing power, the NERSC model trails only one existing machine: the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative White IBM supercomputer installed at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

That machine is engaged in classified modeling of nuclear weapons explosions, Hules said.

On the Net:

http://www.top500.org

http://www.ibm.com

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001