Photos: Germany's Leibniz supercomputer

Sounds like every techie's dream job: Design a supercomputer from scratch, with no expense spared, no need for private sector investment and, if at all possible, no human involvement in running it. That is the challenge that one supercomputer specialist is wrestling with in Germany.

Germany's second-most-powerful supercomputer, in Leibniz, near Munich, is going through an upgrade that should see it double in performance in 2007. The Leibniz Rechenzentrum (LRZ), a specialist supercomputer center, was completed only two years ago. According to the director of the center, Heinz-Gerd Hegering, its Silicon Graphics computer was designed from scratch and built to accommodate upgrades as supercomputing technology improved. Hegering has planned this system to operate without people--fully "lights out"--with only robotic tape storage loaders moving within its walls. During ZDNet UK's visit to the center we saw only one other person in this massive facility, which is almost twice the height of the five-story building standing next to it.

The supercomputer sits at the top of the building, with only the exhaust blowers for the air-conditioning system and the roof above it. The computer room is in a cage in the center. Around it, on all four sides, is a space stretching from the ground to the top of the building, which helps shield the computer.