Supercomputer Fugaku developed jointly by RIKEN and Fujitsu Limited is now the fastest computer in the world. It has come top among the 500 list of super computers, a ranking of the world’s fastest supercomputers,
Fugaku also topped the ranking on HIPCG. a ranking of supercomputers running real-world applications. Apart from this, it also topped the IP-Al ranking (supercomputers based on their performance capabilities for tasks used in artificial intelligence) and Graph 500 (ranking systems based on data-intensive loads)
The supercomputer also gets the distinction of coming top in HPCG and Graph 500 simultaneously. Fugaku also has also the distinction of becoming the first system from Japan to get the top position after 2011. Normally the US and China systems come top in super computers.
RIKEN R-CCS director Satoshi Matsuoka said that Fugaku was conceptualised ten years ago and the project was officially started six years ago. The super computer was developed on the idea of achieving high performance on several applications of public interest, Matsuoka said.
The supercomputer is now installed at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) in kobe. It is being developed under a national plan to design Japan’s next generation flagship supercomputer. It is also aimed at carrying out a wide range of applications to address high-priority social and scientific issues
The computer is named after an alternative name for Mount Fuji. The development of the supercomputer started in 2014 as successor to K computer. Though scheduled to start operation in 2021, it began the operation in June 2020. Fugaku is built on Fujitsu A64FX microprocessor. The CPU is based on the ARM version 8.2A processor architecture, and adopts the Scalable Vector Extensions for supercomputers.
