Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, left, poses with contestants Ken Jennings, centre, and Brad Rutter and an IBM-developed computer named Watson in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., in an undated photo. (Jeopardy Productions/Associated Press)

The IBM supercomputer Watson ended the first round of its two-game Jeopardy exhibition yesterday tied for first place with human player Brad Rutter.

Watson and Rutter were tied at $5,000, while the other challenger, Ken Jennings, was far behind with $2,000.

Rutter is the quiz show's all-time money-winner with $3.25 million and Jennings has the longest winning streak at 74 games.

Watson, named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is powered by 10 racks of computer servers running under the Linux operating system. IBM says Watson has the processing power of 2,800 "powerful computers." The computer racks and the refrigeration units needed to cool them fill a room.

Watson can't see or hear and receives the questions by text file at the same time the human competitors do. This was made clear when Watson repeated a wrong response already given by Jennings.

The computer doesn't have an internet connection and relies on its own data banks and natural language algorithms to formulate its answers.

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