Specifically, up to 18,000 of NVIDIA’s

Clearly enjoying the fruits of its labour in the wider chip-making market, one-time graphics specialist NVIDIA is to have its GPU processing technology utilized in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s upcoming supercomputer.

Specifically, up to 18,000 of NVIDIA’s Tesla processors are to be adopted during the second phase development of the Titan supercomputer (Cray XK6), which is being built to churn through a variety of important scientific research projects—including the creation of commercially viable biofuels.

“Oak Ridge’s decision to base Titan on Tesla GPUs underscores the growing belief that GPU-based heterogeneous computing is the best approach to reach exascale computing levels within the next decade,” commented Steve Scott, chief technology officer of Tesla products at NVIDIA.

For those not immediately familiar with such heavy-handed parlance, “exascale” computing refers to performance levels in the region of 1,000 petaflops.

According to Scott, NVIDIA’s processors will provide more than 85 percent of Titan’s muscle when running at peak performance (approx. 20 petaflops), adding that it isn’t possible to achieve such levels in a power-efficient and cost-efficient way with just CPUs.

Music Unlimited with Sony Tablet

In a move to enrich the appeal of its product portfolio, Sony has this week attempted to wrap its arms even tighter around the increasingly popular ‘cloud’ while competing more directly with Apple’s iTunes Store.

Specifically, Sony has announced a dedicated Android software application for its Music Unlimited streaming service, which, once installed, will provide support for owners of its recently launched Sony Tablet computer.

According to Sony Network Entertainment president Tim Schaaf, the move “marks one of our many significant steps to satisfy the mobile demands of our current consumers while opening up our cloud-based service to completely new audiences.”

For those unfamiliar with Music Unlimited, it provides Sony customers across nine different countries with online access to more than 10 million music tracks as well as streamed TV and film content, and even downloadable videogames.

Also boasting the navigational benefits of an upgraded user interface, the Sony Tablet app allows service subscribers to create playlists faster, discover related artists and song tracks, and receive more streamlined search results.