04:38Japan: Supercomputer in Kobe rated as world’s fastest
A Japanese supercomputer was crowned the world's most powerful, topping massive rivals in the US and China. As seen on Monday, the room-size machine called Fugaku was developed by the government-sponsored RIKEN institute in Kobe, western Japan.
It is composed of 432 units, takes up the space of more than 10 tennis courts and carries out 2.8 times more calculations a second than an IBM system in Tennessee, US, which was runner-up in the so-called Top500 list.
"How fast is it? Assuming that there are seven billion people in the world and those people do calculations for 24 hours a day for over two years without sleep and rest, Fugaku can calculate (the same thing) in just one second," explained Tetsuo Karaki, RIKEN Center spokesperson.
Fugaku outperformed its competitors in four of six major categories, including computing speed, in the Top500 ranking. It's the first time a Japanese computer has topped the global rank since 2011.
The Japanese supercomputer is being used “on an experimental basis for research on COVID-19, including on diagnostics, therapeutics, and simulations of the spread of the virus,” the operator writes in a statement.
04:38A Japanese supercomputer was crowned the world's most powerful, topping massive rivals in the US and China. As seen on Monday, the room-size machine called Fugaku was developed by the government-sponsored RIKEN institute in Kobe, western Japan.
It is composed of 432 units, takes up the space of more than 10 tennis courts and carries out 2.8 times more calculations a second than an IBM system in Tennessee, US, which was runner-up in the so-called Top500 list.
"How fast is it? Assuming that there are seven billion people in the world and those people do calculations for 24 hours a day for over two years without sleep and rest, Fugaku can calculate (the same thing) in just one second," explained Tetsuo Karaki, RIKEN Center spokesperson.
Fugaku outperformed its competitors in four of six major categories, including computing speed, in the Top500 ranking. It's the first time a Japanese computer has topped the global rank since 2011.
The Japanese supercomputer is being used “on an experimental basis for research on COVID-19, including on diagnostics, therapeutics, and simulations of the spread of the virus,” the operator writes in a statement.