The US has claimed back the title for the world’s fastest computer.
Sequoia, developed by IBM for the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is 1.55 faster than Japan’s K Computer made by Fujitsu, the previous record holder.
Installed at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Sequoia achieved 16.32 petaflops on the Linpack benchmark using 1,572,864 cores.
The supercomputer is capable of performing roughly the same number of operations per second as 10 million mobile phones put together.
Sequoia is set to be used to carry out simulations to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, avoiding the need for real-world underground tests.