What Is a Quintillion?

Bob Greene: A new supercomputer can do quintillion calculations a second. He says the computer is called frontier and was created by U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It took more than 10 years to build, he says; China already has two or three such systems. Greene: But they mysteriously decided not to publish about it and get all those bragging rights. They did, of course, make sure the news was leaked.