IBM with its new family of supercomputers, Blue Gene, has become the leading supplier of supercomputers. They took the crown from Hewlett Packard.

Over 50% of the worlds computing power is represented by a mere 224 IBM systems. HP can manage a mere 19%.

The top 500 list of supercomputers was published by IDC.

IBM may supply the most systems on the list, however the most powerful system is still an NEC. Installed in 2002 it is called the Earth Simulator.

Blue Gene which has been developed for the US Department of Energy, for use at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. It is expected that this behemoth will clinch the most system title.

Supercomputer performance is measured in trillions of calculations per second or teraflops. IBM systems on Top 500 aggregrate to 407 teraflops.