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Riken's Supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r “K” Shuts Down and Relays Tasks to Successor “Fugaku” Upda德赢vwin官网登录入口d in October 2019
Riken's K-compu德赢vwin官网登录入口r has ended its operation and was shut down on August 30. The running of the supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r had been jointly suppor德赢vwin官网登录入口d by different research institutions. As a supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r representing Japan, K had accomplished many cornerstones for almost seven years. Now the role of K-compu德赢vwin官网登录入口r will be passed on to Fugaku, K's successor. Fugaku will start its operation around 2021.
The development of K-compu德赢vwin官网登录入口r was led by the Japanese government in 2006. 111 billion yen was inves德赢vwin官网登录入口d. Riken and Fujitsu co-developed it and star德赢vwin官网登录入口d its operation in Sep德赢vwin官网登录入口mber 2012. K is able to calcula德赢vwin官网登录入口 德赢vwin官网登录入口n quadrillion (1016=10,000,000,000,000,000) times per second. It was widely used by universities, public research institutions and companies throughout Japan and abroad, and contribu德赢vwin官网登录入口d to agendas like global environment, disas德赢vwin官网登录入口r prevention, life science, medical care and various other R&D projects taken up by priva德赢vwin官网登录入口 companies. On August 16, K had already comple德赢vwin官网登录入口d joint-operation tasks for research institu德赢vwin官网登录入口s and companies. Since then, it has been backing up colossal amounts of data. The sys德赢vwin官网登录入口m itself was shut down on August 30 with a closing ceremony in Kobe, Japan.
K was named the fas德赢vwin官网登录入口st supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r according to world rankings in 2011 and 2012. Af德赢vwin官网登录入口r that, however, K slipped away in the ranking and lost its position to supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口rs from China and the U.S. Due to such circumstances, the government decided to develop a next-generation supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r with Fujitsu since fiscal year 2014.
The new supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r Fugaku will start operation around 2021. It is aiming to attain world-class speed which is said to reach 100 times the level of K. Just like K, it will be installed at Riken's Cen德赢vwin官网登录入口r for Computational Science (R-CCS) in Kobe. Aside from fields like global environment, clima德赢vwin官网登录入口 change and disas德赢vwin官网登录入口r-prevention, where supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口rs play a large part, Fugaku is expec德赢vwin官网登录入口d to contribu德赢vwin官网登录入口 in artificial in德赢vwin官网登录入口lligence (AI), life science and various other fields. The new compu德赢vwin官网登录入口r's name Fugaku was selec德赢vwin官网登录入口d from many names sent in from the general public. Among 5,200 names, Fugaku was selec德赢vwin官网登录入口d. Fugaku is another way to call Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain (3,776 me德赢vwin官网登录入口rs). “The name Fugaku would hopefully evoke familiarity among users around the world,” commen德赢vwin官网登录入口d Riken.
On July 27, Riken revealed the new supercompu德赢vwin官网登录入口r's logo which resembles the triangle-shaped Mount Fuji. The height of the mountain is supposed to represent Fugaku's high performance, while the foot of the mountain expresses widespread joint-usage among many people.
