NSF said the state-of-the-art supercomputer will enhance the computational power of the TeraGrid, which the foundation described as "the world's largest, most powerful and comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research."

"Like the gargantuan sea monsters Kraken, which inspired the naming of this supercomputer, the possibilities in scientific and engineering advances it enables are enormous, limited only by the confines of human imagination and vision beyond the frontiers of science," NSF Director Arden L. Bement said in a statement Thursday.

Bement said the supercomputer will be built through a partnership between the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and other partnering universities.