NEC Corporation

The world's fastest computer is so big, it needs a house the size of a hangar. The Earth Simulator in Yokohama, Japan is like a huge weathercaster, tracking sea temperatures, rainfall and crustal movement to predict natural disasters.

'Supercomputer' seems to be an understatement. The $350 million machine is more like a super duper computer -- it runs 35.6 trillion calculations per second. That's almost five times faster than its closest competitor and as fast as the top five U.S. supercomputers combined.

Proof that banking reform in Japan is becoming a reality came yesterday with the flotation of Shinsei, which ended its first day of trading in Tokyo at a 58 per cent premium to its issue price.

There were no sellers of the rescued bank's shares for the entire morning trading session. The shares eventually closed at Y827 after an issue price of Y525, taking the bank's market capitalisation through the trillion yen mark to Y1,124bn.