A global race is under way to reach the next milestone in supercomputer performance, many times the speed of today's most powerful machines. And beyond the customary rivalry in the field between the United States and Japan, there is a new entrant - China - eager to showcase its arrival as an economic powerhouse.
A new Japanese supercomputer is capable of 35.6 trillion calculations per second, almost five times faster than the next best one and as fast as the top 5 U.S. supercomputers combined. U.S. analysts are concerned that the new supercomputer signals an end to American dominance of this high-profile field.
A Japanese laboratory has built the world's fastest computer, a machine so powerful that it matches the raw processing power of the 20 fastest American computers combined and far outstrips the previous leader, an I.B.M.-built machine.
The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry has decided that the export of PlayStation2 should be restricted because its powerful processor could be converted for use in missiles that read visual information to home in on targets.