And the numbers just keep on climbing! Yes, kiddies, it's time for the almost-daily Big Mac Report, which tracks Virginia Tech's G5-based supercomputer as it slowly climbs the greased pole of its own limitless potential. Well, okay, maybe not limitless, exactly-- its theoretical max performance is 17.6 teraflops, and exceeding that would require cold fusion, a means of exceeding the speed of light, and the blood sacrifice of a live virgin to the ancient and terrible volcano god Kajagoogoo. But hey, never say never.

If you can still remember anything from Friday before the moral turpitude and massive abuse of alcoholic beverages at Night of the Panther, you might recall that, after first turning in a relatively pathetic score of just 7.41 teraflops earlier in the week and then improving that to 8.164 teraflops just a day or two later, Big Mac finished out the week with a darn respectable performance of 8.7 teraflops. That just barely brushed past the best-scoring Intel-based supercomputer to make Big Mac the third fastest supercomputer on the planet-- provided that nothing changes before the official scores are recorded next month, that is. The Intel cluster scored 8.633 teraflops, so the battle for third place is a horserace.

Or rather, it was. Faithful viewer Dan Birchall informs us that things are changing-- for the better. Jack Dongarra's report has been updated yet again; now it's stamped with today's date, and if you download the PDF and flip to page 53, you'll find that since last Friday, Big Mac has gone from 8.7 teraflops all the way up to a stunning 9.555 teraflops. If the Intel cluster has improved at all in the meantime, it's not reflected in Jack's report, so as of right now, it looks like Big Mac has carved out a nice, cozy spot at Number Three.

Unless, of course, Big Mac somehow manages to claw its way into second place. It's a tough climb, to be sure; that spot is currently occupied by an ASCI Q AlphaServer EV-68 (there are three of 'em in the top ten) with 8,160 processors-- nearly four times as many as Big Mac has. The ASCI Q has a recorded score of 13.88 teraflops, which is a pretty lofty target for Big Mac to hit. Can Virginia Tech squeeze four more teraflops out of Big Mac? Like we said, never say never; after all, they've already dragged out two extra teraflops in just the past week. Also, four percent of its processors are still apparently offline (it's listed as a 2,112-processor cluster, so there's another 44 Power Macs still warming up in the bullpen or something), and we've heard from a few alleged Hokies who claim to be in the know: reportedly there might still be one or two obvious bottlenecks to be ironed out in the coming weeks' tweaking.

It's not terribly likely, mind you, but if Virginia Tech can somehow get Big Mac crunching at 80% of its theoretical peak (the Earth Simulator does 87.5%-- of course, that's not a cluster), then, yes-- there's a slim chance of slipping into second place. Dare to dream!