Yes, I did an internship for the BBP last year. This is not based in any way on their work. That code has problems simulating multiple neurons for some reason

Yes, I did an internship for the BBP last year. This is not based in any way on their work. That code has problems simulating multiple neurons for some reason (possibly thread safety in GSL?). But, it can simulate one neuron at 20x realtime, with dumping traces to disk. If I were to disable dumping traces, it'd be primarily limited by GSL's differential equation solver. (Sorry, too tired to respond to the second half of your comment)