Harnessing 12,960 chips that are an improved version of an I.B.M. Cell microprocessor, and completing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second, Roadrunner, based at Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in Los Alamos, N.M., is over twice as fast as the previous Top500 number champion, BlueGene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Shorter sentences and more information in the morning.

(See also: NYtimes: Military Supercomputer Sets Record)