Like coupons, the real money of the model is probably in infrastructure and database management, not owning a dedicated front-end site.

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"Supercomputers weren't designed for things like Web searches, scheduling and database management, but with today's pricing and performance it makes good economic sense, " adds Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee professor and cocompiler of the Top 500 list.

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With the latest technology, says Cho, the bank can measure the profitability of every branch employee and customer, mine its customer database and run sophisticated risk-management and credit-analysis programs.

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