IBM is set to deploy a petaflop supercomputer, which will significantly outpace the company’s teraflop Blue Gene/L, according to a report from the BBC. The new computer, named the Roadrunner, will mark the migration of the Cell processor out of the PlayStation 3 environment into mainstream computing—if the Roadrunner could be considered “mainstream” in any sense.

It looks as if the Roadrunner won’t be applied to protean-folding experiments that could lead to cures to diseases like Alzheimer’s. Instead, the BBC reports, it will be deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the US Department of Energy might use it to run simulations in an effort to ensure that the US nuclear-weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable. Of course, I guess such an application does address a significant health issue.