Experimentation Matters

 

epilogue

On 19 November 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported that IBM would build two new supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).¹ Valued at $290 million, the computers plan to leapfrog the world’s fastest computer, the Earth Simulator made by Japan’s NEC Corporation and used for simulating weather patterns and earthquakes, and have a combined peak speed of up to 467 trillion calculations per second. The first of the two supercomputers, named ASCI Purple, will primarily simulate the “button to bang” of nuclear weapons, since the United States has abandoned its physical testing program.² Thus, simulation capabilities have come full circle: First developed to aid in the design of the country’s nuclear weapons, advanced simulation ...