The Obama Administration’s 2012 budget includes $126 million for the development of exascale supercomputing. The last budget marked out only $24 million for supercomputing.

Exascale computing systems are said to be capable of 1,000 times the processing power of the fastest computer currently operational, the Chinese Tianhe-1A supercomputer.

The ability to compute in exabytes seems increasingly necessary as the amount of data available increases cataclysmically. Eight years ago there were only about five exabytes of data online. Two years ago, that amount of flowed over the Internet in a month. But recent estimates put the monthly Internet data flow at 21 exabytes.

The problem with reaching this milestone is not so much computing development as it is power requirements. According to supercomputing specialist Peter Kogge, the development of exascale is liable to hit a “power wall.”