A computer capable of 2.4 exaflops – 12x more than the 200 petaflops IBM Summit which  holds the traditional computing speed title – has been created by linking almost a million PCs.

The link up was organised by Folding@Home to perform a task called protein folding which involve calculating the structural shape which amino acids form to make protein.

In March, Folding@Home devised tasks involving simulations of the dynamics of the proteins that make up the Coronavirus to help the development of drugs to fight the infection.

Owners of PCs download the software from Folding@Home which then uses spare time on the PCs to perform the calculations.