The secretive R&D wing of the US government's intelligence efforts, IARPA, has announced a program to build a superconducting computer. IARPA will be working with IBM, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman to develop this superconducting computer, but the exact financial details of the deal are not available. Ultimately, the purpose of the program is to build an exascale supercomputer -- a computer that is capable of at least 1,000 petaflops (1 exaflop), or about 40 times faster than the world's existing supercomputers.