Although it sounds like some kind of fantasy computing game, and in a way that sums it up pretty nicely, a 40 core supercomputer for your desktop will be a reality from January 2007 thanks to TyanPSC.

The next generation personal supercomputer from Tyan Computer Corporation was launched today, with general availability expected by January. The Typhoon 600 series uses Intel Xeon 5300 Clovertown processors (up to 40 CPU cores in total) to provide a 256 gigaflops performance on a turnkey system for your office or home, and it can be powered up from a standard electricity socket as well.

"We're leaving the performance compromise of personal supercomputing behind us by delivering a system into office environments that pumps out one quarter of a Teraflop without the mess and difficulty of the back room data centre model." Mark Burnett, European product manager of TyanPSC told me this afternoon.

The hidden beauty, when you get past the incredible performance, is the fact that this is a supercomputer that has been purpose-built to be deployed and used just like an ordinary PC by removing the complexity and management issues that are usually associated with the breed. OK, maybe not any ordinary PC as I am hard pressed to think of another than costs in the region of $20,000 as a starting price!

You can take a look for yourself if you happen to be in the Tampa, Florida area this week as Tyan is demonstrating it at the Supercomputing 2006 conference there.

In case you can’t make it, here are those specs in full:

• 256 gigaflops peak performance
• 1400 Watts max, plugs into standard wall outlet
• Small form factor, portable
• Low-noise, whisper quiet operation… less than 52dB.
• Easy to use Personal Supercomputer using Microsoft Windows Computer Cluster Server 2003
• Up to 40 CPU cores per system