Farewell to Blue Waters...

[sawyl]

Needless to say, everyone is more than a bit startled by IBM's decision to pull out of Blue Waters:

Effective August 6, 2011, IBM terminated its contract with the University of Illinois to provide the supercomputer for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications' Blue Waters project.

...The innovative technology that IBM ultimately developed was more complex and required significantly increased financial and technical support by IBM beyond its original expectations. NCSA and IBM worked closely on various proposals to retain IBM's participation in the project but could not come to a mutually agreed-on plan concerning the path forward.

All of which doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence...