What is your entry:"What would you do with 48 cores ?"
jacquesm: Interesting topic, but why would an X number of cores be the reason of approaching this particular problem ? It seems as though 'more is better' is the way to go here, so a cluster of rented boxes would be one way of getting there, a couple of high end GPGPU cards would be another. The number of cores in a box is just another multiplicand under the bar to get to the time-to-a solution.