AUTOMOTIVE

Spain said its supercomputer, using Linux software, would have the capacity to process 40 teraflops, or 40 trillion calculations per second, and have 9.0 terabytes of memory, equal to that of 18,000 personal computers. "It will be the first supercomputer in the world for general use," Science and Technology Minister Juan Costa told a news conference, adding that Alzheimer's disease, mad cow disease and climate change would be among the top priorities for research, largely through simulation and models. If completed as planned, it would become the fastest supercomputer in Europe. An IBM creation at Germany's Juelich research center, which has a peak performance of 8.9 teraflops, currently claims the top spot on the continent. The Earth Simulator, which virtually recreates the planet, holds the current record at 35.86 teraflops, according to the Top500 Web site (http://www.top500.org). Costa did not explain why Spain's 40 teraflops would not rank number one. The current number two on Top500's list is the ASCI Q system at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory with 13.88 teraflops. Spain, a country more known for the arts than the sciences, has in recent years made an attempt to close the gap with other countries in research and development. The supercomputer will be built in the northeastern region of Catalonia, an area that includes Barcelona, although the exact site would be determined in coming weeks, Costa said. Spain will establish a national research center around the supercomputer that would be available for 4,000 Spanish and international researchers per year and be run by an independent scientific board that will decide which projects have priority, Costa said.