Governor Bill Richardson praised the report by the TOP500 project that showed New Mexico’s supercomputer is the world’s 3rd most powerful. The state’s new system posted a speed of 126.9 trillion calculations per second in recent tests submitted to the TOP500 project, which tracks the world’s fastest supercomputers. “The New Mexico Computing Applications Center is off to a very, very fast start,” said Governor Bill Richardson. “The strong performance of this system shows we’re making a good investment in a world class project." New Mexico’s system was outperformed only by a German research facility and the BlueGene/L system located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. New Mexico Computer Applications Center’s supercomputer is in the process of being located at Intel Corporation in Rio Rancho. The supercomputer is designed by SGI, which was recently awarded an $11 million state contract to build the system. The New Mexico Computer Applications Center will partner with private businesses, governments and schools on research and development projects. With the new supercomputer, businesses, governments and researchers can model complex problems, save time and money and make better decisions about their future. “This supercomputer will be a catalyst for New Mexico’s high tech economy, and make our state a better place to do business and research,” said Governor Richardson. The project is supported by the unique talent from Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, which have lent technical and business advisers to the project. And New Mexico’s three universities – New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State, and the University of New Mexico – have provided staff and project support. “Our partnerships will save money and help us in the early stages of this ambitious project,” said Tom Bowles, the governor’s chief science advisor. “We’re confident that this project will pay for itself over time, through partnerships with businesses, governments and research institutions." The project is overseen by the New Mexico Department of Information Technology. SGI is scheduled to install and begin initial testing on the supercomputer system by the end of this year. Go to www.doit.state.nm.us for more information.