back to article Oil giant Total shells out €60m for world's fastest private super

Total Group wants to do a better job finding oil lurking in the Earth's crust, and these days that means getting more computing power to turn the jiggling of the planet into pretty 3D pictures that show where the Black Gold might be hiding. To that end, Total is paying Silicon Graphics €60m over the next four years to build the …

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  1. Inachu
    Boffin

    Ahh he was right!

    Peak oil is here and trying to use science to find every scrape of oil on earth will be done in vain but I am sure they will find other uses for the super cumputer such as creating new bit coins. One bit coin at this moment is equal to $67!

    1. Katie Saucey
      Joke

      Re: Ahh he was right!

      So the worlds' remaining oil will be used to power a bitcoin generator? I'm off to buy Total stocks!

      1. Inachu
        Black Helicopters

        Re: Ahh he was right!

        Today bitcoin has reached $90

        Do it now or be priced out forever

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Xeons?

    I wonder how fast it would be had they used Opterons. (Anon to avoid bumhurt from Intel fanbois.)

    1. localzuk Silver badge

      Re: Xeons?

      Considering the 2690 is around 40% faster than its nearest Opteron, I'd say not as fast... Not a fanboy, gotta love a good AMD chip, but lately they just haven't kept up in the performance ranks.

  3. Michael Kean

    Another kind of mining?

    Hmm :) WIth that much computing power, I wonder if they could potentially mount a 51% attack on Bitcoin - although if they just mined normally they'd probably make a small fortune at the current Bitcoin market values.

  4. Captain Scarlet
    Unhappy

    Jealous

    I want two, oh wait the Capex budget won't stretch that far :(

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