NEW YORK – IBM and supercomputer-maker Cray Inc. are being awarded a total of nearly $500 million by a Pentagon research agency for a supercomputer project, and Cray shares rose 31 percent on Wednesday.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s technology incubator, said in a press release on its Web site dated Tuesday that IBM, the world’s largest technology services company, would receive $244 million and Cray would receive $250 million.
Shares in Cray rose $3.12 to $13.04 on the Nasdaq while IBM shares were off 24 cents at $92.84 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Supercomputers are large machines that can crunch huge amounts of data to simulate weather, analyze DNA and process other research-level tasks. They are used primarily by a few companies, governments and the military.
DARPA said the contractors would work on its High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program. The contractors were selected for phase III of this program, where they are tasked with completing the designs and technical development of very large productive supercomputers, Darpa said.
Fuente: Reuters
