The race is on to develop a new generation of far more powerful supercomputers that could help solve some of the world's most vexing problems.

Exascale supercomputers, expected to appear by 2018, could, for example, play a significant role in efforts to combat climate change or develop ultra-long-life batteries for powering automobiles. Scientists also expect exascale systems to help them come up with processes for creating biofuels from weeds rather than corn.