IBM’s latest supercomputer Roadrunner can performs operation at the speed of 1 pentaflop.1 penta-flop is defined as one million billion calculation per second. An operational roadrunner will cost you around $100 million. It operates on red hat Linux. This super computer will be used for mission critical application like nuclear energy, astronomy; massive financial service infrastructure etc.Roadrunner is reportedly twice as fast as its nearest rival IBM’s Blue Gene.

IBM built the computer for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration. Interestingly, load runner architecture is hybrid. It uses the Cell Broadband Engine that was originally designed for video game platforms such as the Sony Play station 3. This engine will work along with x86 processors from AMD.