To the envy of geeks everywhere Australia's most powerful computer has been officially launched in Canberra, ushering in a new era for scientific research.

The supercomputer, jointly funded by the Australian National University, the CSIRO and the federal government, was officially launched by Science Minister Kim Carr at its new home today.

supercomputer vayu

The supercomputer will be operated by National Computational Infrastructure and director Lindsay Botten says the computer brings Australia's capability into line with the top systems around the world.

"This next generation research supercomputer will boost Australia's computational research capacity into world ranking," Professoressor Botten said.