This archive report was first published on 23 June 2020.
On Monday, the developers of Japan's Fugaku supercomputer announced that it has taken the top spot on the Top500 list, a benchmark of computer processing power that has been tracking the evolution of supercomputers for over two decades.
Published on June 22, 2020, the Top500 list rates supercomputers based on their speed in a benchmark test set by experts from Germany and the US. Fugaku, jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu, has a speed of roughly 415.53 petaflops, more than 2.8 times faster than the second-ranked US Summit supercomputer's 148.6 petaflops.
A supercomputer is significantly faster than a regular computer, with Riken stating that it is over 1,000 times faster. Fugaku, named after Mount Fuji, has been under development for six years and is expected to start full-time operation from April 2021.
Already being utilized in the fight against coronavirus, Fugaku is running simulations on how droplets would spread on office spaces with partitions installed or packed trains with windows open. According to Satoshi Matsuoka, the head of Riken's Center for Computational Science, "I hope that the leading-edge IT developed for it will contribute to major advances on difficult social challenges such as COVID-19."
Fugaku has also topped several other supercomputer performance rankings, becoming the first to simultaneously sit atop the Graph500, HPCG, and HPL-AI lists. Supercomputers are vital tools for advanced scientific work due to their ability to perform rapid calculations for tasks such as weather forecasting and missile development.
