Ever so shortly after hearing that next-generation cellphones could boast some pretty powerful onboard graphics processing, Symbian has just announced that these same phones could support the ARM Symmetric Multi-processor (SMP) architecture. The firm has inked a deal with ARM that will enable future versions of the Symbian OS to support ARM SMP multicore technology, which is said to offer "exceptional multicore performance for media-rich applications along with the power efficiency required to continue to deliver industry leading battery life." Apparently, the two are looking to stuff the newly unveiled ARM Cortex A9 multicore processor into Symbian-based smartphones by 2010, so unfortunately, we've got a few years left to wait before this goes commercial.

It was but two years ago that we all sat in awe of IBM's beautiful 280.6-teraflop masterpiece, and it's finally safe to call that workhorse a thing of the past. Today, Big Blue announced the second-generation of its famed supercomputer (dubbed Blue Gene/P), which reportedly comes close to "tripling the performance of its predecessor." In an attempt to showcase its might, IBM suggested that 27 million clinical trials could be computed "in just one afternoon using a sliver of its full power." Additionally, the engineers went the extra mile by crafting a highly scalable system that comes in "at least seven times more energy efficient than any other supercomputer," but we're sure those 294,912 processors (each touting four PowerPC 450 CPUs) can churn through some energy when utilizing the whole petaflop. And just think, Sun probably thought the 500 or so teraflop production from its forthcoming Ranger would be the (momentary) top dog.

Read - IBM's Blue Gene/P, via CNET
Read - Sun's Ranger, via Wired

Nah, it's no BlueGene L supercomputer, but IBM's latest dual-core microprocessor runs at a cool 4.7GHz while sporting 8MB of total cache per chip. The device reportedly runs "twice as fast" and packs four times the cache as the POWER5, and boasts a processor bandwidth of 300Gbps. Interestingly, the massive power increase doesn't seem to come with a boost in energy requirements, as IBM claims that the 65-nanometer POWER6 somehow ups its game while "using nearly the same amount of electricity" as its predecessor. The company plans on shoving the new darling into the System p570 server, and preliminary testing showed that all four of the "most widely used performance benchmarks for Unix servers" were shattered by its CPU. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing nor availability just yet, but we're anticipating a bit of sticker shock when it does finally land.

[Via LinuxDevices]