The Japanese Fugaku supercomputer developed by Fujitsu and the Riken Research Institute in Japan, has been named the world's fastest computer in the biannual TOP500 ranking, marking the return of a Japanese supercomputer to the top spot after nine years, surpassing its American and Chinese counterparts. It is also the first time that an ARM-based supercomputer has topped the list.
Fugaku the fastest supercomputer in the world in 2020.
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These types of supercomputers are used to perform very complicated tasks, such as quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, space exploration, etc., which require specialized high-performance calculations.
In this case, Fugaku is operating in a test phase to look for potential drugs to treat COVID-19 and to analyse what impact treatment with these drugs would have on the human body.
No. 1 in the TOP500 ranking
The last time a Japan-based supercomputer took the top spot was in 2011, also developed by Riken and Fujitsu. It is known as the "K-supercomputer". Fugaku is followed by two supercomputers from the United States and two from China.
The characteristics of Fugaku
Fugaku runs on Fujitsu's 48-core SoC A64FX and is 2.8 times faster than IBM's Summit supercomputer, which is second on this year's Top500 list. The Japanese supercomputer has also reached the top ranks in other publications such as Graph 500, HPL-AI and HPCG.
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| Fugaku can reach peaks of 1,000 petaflops |
The machine achieved a throughput of 415.5 petaFLOPS, far surpassing the second fastest device, Summit (installed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA), with a throughput of 148.8 petaFLOPS.