By TETSUYA ISHIKURA/ Staff Writer
November 17, 2020 at 17:25 JST
The Japanese supercomputer Fugaku, which ranked No. 1 in the world in calculation speed again (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Packing unimaginable speed with user-friendliness, the Japanese supercomputer Fugaku remains at the top of the world, just like its namesake.
Named after Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest peak, Fugaku retained the No. 1 ranking on the Top 500 supercomputer calculation speed ranking announced on Nov. 17.
Fugaku, jointly developed by the Riken research institute and leading computer maker Fujitsu Ltd., became the world's fastest supercomputer for the first time in June in the twice-yearly ranking.
In June, a portion of the supercomputer's hardware was not in operation, but this time with all its 432 units operating, Fugaku reached a calculation speed of 442 quadrillion calculations per second. That was three times ahead of the second-ranked supercomputer, made in the United States.
Fugaku placed at the top in four of the categories again, including calculation speed for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The K computer, Fugaku’s predecessor, also took No. 1 in the world in supercomputer calculation speed in the past, but failed to be widely used because it was deemed not user friendly.
After the Japanese supercomputer successfully topped the world ranking for the first time in nine years since the K computer, Fugaku has improved its capabilities even further.
In the competition, Fugaku led in four categories, including the speed of applications running on it and the ability of big data analytics, which was three to five times faster than the second-ranked computers.
Fugaku will be operated on a full-scale basis in fiscal 2021, but a part of the computer has already been utilized for studying preventive measures against the new coronavirus.
“Fugaku, which is nearly completed, will solve many difficult social problems such as safeguarding health during times such as the new coronavirus pandemic,” said Satoshi Matsuoka, director of the Riken Center for Computational Science (R-CCS).
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