BERLIN — Bulgaria officially unveiled its first supercomputer, an IBM Blue Gene/P, which is expected to significantly boost the country's research base.

The Linux based system contains 8192 densely-packed microprocessors and runs at 23.42 trillion operations per second (TFLOPS), putting it in the ranks of the top one hundred most powerful supercomputers in the world, according to an IBM statement.

The Bulgarian IBM Blue Gene/P will be operated by a consortium including IBM, the Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technology and Communications (SAITC) and universities.

"This agreement with IBM begins a new era of supercomputing in Bulgaria and creates huge potential to boost scientific research in the region as a whole," said Plamen Vachkov, Chairman of the Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technology and Communications.

The four main target areas for supercomputer-based research are DNA-based diagnostics, accelerated drug discovery, financial modeling and university research.

Students from Bulgarian universities gain the processing power and system resources they need to make more accurate decisions in research and raise the profile of Bulgaria within research facilities and academic communities, according to the statement.

The supercomputer will also allow Bulgarian businesses and research institutes to cooperate in a broader range of EU research projects.

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