COLSA Corporation has purchased 1,566 dual-processor 1U rack-mount 64-bit Xserve G5 servers from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to build a new supercomputer that the company hopes will be one of the fastest in the world.

The supercomputer, named MACH 5, is expected to deliver a peak performance capability of more than 25 teraflops at a cost of US$5.8 million and will be used to model the complex aero-thermodynamics of hypersonic flight for the U.S. Army.

"We expect MACH 5 to rank as one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet," said Anthony DiRienzo, executive vice president at COLSA Corporation.