Japan is poised to make a groundbreaking move in the field of supercomputing by building the world’s first zeta-class supercomputer, dubbed Fugaku Next. This ambitious project, backed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), aims to create a machine that can process calculations at speeds 1,000 times faster than current top supercomputers.
The proposed supercomputer will operate on the zetaFLOPS scale, capable of performing an astonishing sextillion calculations per second. To put this into perspective, today’s most advanced machines run at the exaFLOPS level, which is equivalent to a quintillion calculations per second. Fugaku Next would be a monumental achievement, but it comes with significant energy efficiency challenges.
Experts estimate that building such a machine using current technologies could require the energy output of 21 nuclear power plants. To tackle this issue, MEXT plans to incorporate cutting-edge technologies, including custom-designed CPUs and high-bandwidth memory systems. Additionally, Fugaku Next is expected to be compatible with existing infrastructure, potentially leading to collaborations with Fujitsu and RIKEN.
The current world’s fastest supercomputer, Frontier, is located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and operates at 1.206 exaflops. Scientists are using Frontier for various research purposes, including astrophysics, climate modeling, materials science, and AI development.
Fugaku Next would enable significantly more advanced and complex computations than Frontier, such as simulating the entire human brain or modeling intricate climate systems. This increased computational power could accelerate the process of identifying and testing new pharmaceutical compounds or develop more precise simulations of molecular structures, potentially leading to the creation of new materials.
As Japan embarks on this ambitious project, the global computing community watches with interest and concern. Japan’s push for a zeta-class supercomputer could ignite a supercomputer race among nations, similar to the ongoing competition for exascale systems, with countries increasing funding for high-performance computing research and development to close the technological gap.
Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/104668-japan-build-world-first-zeta-class-supercomputer-promising.html