OAK RIDGE -- Oak Ridge National Laboratory has acquired a new IBM supercomputer with the capability of performing a trillion calculations per second -- more than seven times faster than the research lab's current top computer.

Initially, the IBM RS/6000 SP machine will perform at about a tenth of its potential, but by the middle of next year the supercomputer will have a performance level of one "teraop" -- a trillion operations per second.

Lab officials hailed the acquisition as vital to the research missions for the U.S. Department of Energy.

"Our researchers are developing scientific simulations that require machine performance at levels of one teraop and beyond," Thomas Zaccharia, director of ORNL's Computer Science and Mathematics Division, said in a prepared statement. "By acquiring this IBM machine, we're taking a major step toward that goal."

The Oak Ridge lab's Intel Paragon was the fastest computer in the world for a period in 1995, but it now cowers in comparison to the new machine.

Ed Cumesty, DOE's assistant manager for laboratories in Oak Ridge, said: "The really exciting thing about this machine isn't just the speed of its calculations, but rather the speed of the researchers rushing to use it."

He said the computer will add strength to the lab's partnerships with industry and universities and help solve difficult problems.

One use of the supercomputer will be complex models that help track emissions associated with global climate change.

The machine also will be used for simulations that assist design and manufacturing of advanced vehicles.