Update: Tata hopes its supercomputer is a money machine

When Eka, the 117.9-teraflop supercomputer built by the Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) in Pune, India, was named the fourth most powerful machine in the world last November, the global computing community and even the computer's developers were surprised. Though a new top 10 list, due out this month, may see Eka demoted, CRL has already proved that top rankings in this field, typically the domain of national laboratories in the richest countries, cannot be taken for granted. Next month, the company should see its larger goals achieved as well: turning the US $30 million Eka into a revenue-generating supercomputer for hire and its team into a supercomputer services consultancy. Eka is the only privately funded supercomputer in the top 10, and it is the only one built specifically to make money.