A Japanese supercomputer called Fugaku has won the biannual Top500 supercomputer speed ranking, officially making it the fastest computer in the world, The Verge reports.
The Fugaku also ranked number one on different workloads, including Graph 500, HPL-AI, and HPCG. It's the first time a supercomputer has taken out the top spot across all four rankings at once.
Fugaku is currently installed at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) in Kobe, Japan, where it's being developed under a national plan to design Japan’s next-generation flagship supercomputer.
It's already been used for experimental research into Covid-19, including diagnostics, simulating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the effectiveness of Japan’s new contact tracing app.
According to Satoshi Matsuoka, director of RIKEN R-CCS, “Ten years after the initial concept was proposed, and six years after the official start of the project, Fugaku is now near completion." Fugaku is set to go into full operation by mid next year.
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