NEWS: IBM is building a $27 million supercomputer for the Korea Institute of Science, Technology and Information. The deal is one of IBM's biggest ever in life sciences supercomputing. For IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people), the machine may represent a significant win. It will be used primarily for life sciences research. The Armonk, N.Y.-based computing giant has been trying to make its presence known in biotech supercomputing, a market where Houston's Compaq (nyse: CPQ - news - people) and its Alpha server have a comfortable lead. The computer will be used for some applications in physics and chemistry as well as biology. The supercomputer, which won't be completed until 2003, should also help put Korea on the biotech map. When it's finished, it should be one of the ten fastest in the world, speeding through 4.24 trillion calculations in a second. It will be based on IBM's Power4 chip, a new chip scheduled to begin shipping next year. Comment: I hope the product is not diverted for use to make a nuclear bomb.
