When the acquisition closes in the first quarter, Rational will be the fifth division within IBM software, along with Websphere, DB2 database, Tivoli management products and Lotus collaborative software.

FORBES

"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.

FORBES: From nuclear bombs to net assets

With more 3D content created online, the curation and management of open online databases becomes more onerous for these database owners.

FORBES: The launch��and the pivot