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Supercomputers Stalk Wall Street: Page 2 of 3

BlueGene/L hit the headlines late last year when the U.S. Department of Energy won top spot in the top 500 list of global supercomputers, dislodging Japan’s Earth Simulator from the pole position (see US Reclaims Supercomputing Crown).

IBM is now fluttering its eyelashes in the direction of the wallets on Wall Street. “We have already been to about five financial services companies,” says Santalucia. However, he admits that no companies have, as yet, signed on the dotted line.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based firm will also be moving a BlueGene/L from its Yorktown research labs in upstate New York to its Linux Competency Center in Manhattan. “[This is] to be closer to the Wall Street firms so that they can try it,” says Santalucia.

But Jeff Teisch, senior vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman told NDCF that the BlueGene/L could offer more power than is actually needed by many firms. “It would be a company with high transaction demands that would need it,” he says.

Teisch adds that not all firms on Wall Street, his own included, need to deal with sufficiently high transaction levels.