Photos: The birth of a supercomputer

Blue Gene no longer naked. The sleek exterior hides its rather mundane-looking workings but nothing can hide its performance. This is IBM's own Blue Gene Watson system which has produced performance of 91.29 teraflops and in November was named by the TOP500 Organisation as the second fastest supercomputer in the world.

But that list only covers supercomputers whose existence is publicised. According to an IBM source, about half the Blue Gene systems in the world are in "classified applications".

Picture © IBM.