The latest creation from Seattle-based Cray has a new name, a new update and possibly a new title: fastest supercomputer on the planet.

Titan, an open science computer located at the U.S Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, debuted today as part of an unveiling of Cray’s new production line of hybrid supercomputers. Titan is the headliner of the group and is considered the most powerful supercomputer ever. (The official rankings will be revealed next month).

Previously named Jaguar, Titan can process 20 quadrillion calculations per second — that’s 20 petaflops — and should help U.S. research related to critical topics like climate change, biofuels and nuclear energy. The update is a major upgrade over Jaguar, and according to CNN, Titan can deliver 10 times the performance and is five times more energy efficient than its predecessor.

CNN also notes that the supercomputer title comes after the U.S. ceded ground to Japan, China and Germany over the past three years, with reporter David Goldman noting that the supercomputer race is “critical to national security and the country’s economic viability.”

The Titan system is a 200-cabinet Cray XK7 supercomputer with 18,688 compute nodes each consisting of a 16-Core AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor and an NVIDIA Tesla K20 GPU Accelerator.

Here’s CNN’s report on the machine:

Previously on GeekWire: Cray makes bold move in data storage, hires majority of Texas team from SFW

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