Blue Gene supercomputer

Email from Neil Andrews:

Good management?

When I asked for funding to buy a new Transmission electron microscope of the cutting edge variety for Biology I was asked the following question in the spirit of “good management”.


“How much time could you buy on a similar machine for the price of the machine compared with the use you would get from it within the university?”

“Remember at 10% you have to pay it all back to the University over a period of 10 years.”

At the current rate of computer development the average desktop machine will have similar computing power in 10 years.

I have yet to find a desk top Transmission Electron Microscope. The average life of an EM is around 15 years.

I have one question.

What’s in it for IBM?