IBM Tops Supercomputer List

IBM Corp. said it has the most supercomputers in the world’s biggest research sites, surpassing Silicon Graphics Inc. for the first time. IBM has 141 of the powerful machines at the top 500 computer sites, according to the Top500 list that’s published twice a year. IBM’s presence at the government, research and university facilities is a 36% increase from 104 systems in 1998. Silicon Graphics, which headed the list for seven years running, fell to second place with 133 machines, compared to 183 last year. Supercomputers are used to run large simulations--such as nuclear tests--and manage massive databases.