Japan to build world's fastest supercomputer that can operate at 10 petaflops
Japan has plans to start building a supercomputer next year that can operate 73 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer, the government said Monday.
The American Blue Gene/L system supercomputer developed by International Business Machine Corp. at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, currently holds the title of the world's fastest. That machine is capable of 136.8 teraflops, or 136.8 trillion calculations per second, according to Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Japan wants to develop a supercomputer that can operate at 10 petaflops, or 10 quadrillion calculations per second, which is 73 times faster than the Blue Gene, an official of the ministry said on condition of anonymity.
Kyodo News reported that the total amount for the project is estimated between 80 billion and 100 billion yen (U.S. $714 million to 893 million; euro593 million to 741 million) and the ministry will request 10 billion yen (U.S. $89 million; euro74 million) for the next fiscal year's budget.
