In 2006, Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science and Fujitsu, started to work together to make the Japan’s fastest supercomputer at Kobe. In 2011, their supercomputer was among the computers ranked in the top 500 of the world’s fastest computer”. In 2012, they officially made it available for use by researchers from outside. Today, that super computer now ranks as number 1 computer in terms of realistic performance and data-intensive performance, also, it is ranked number 10 in terms of speed of calculation. The supercomputer that they made called “K-computer”. The name of K-computer came from the Japanese kanji character “京” or “Kei” that means “10 to the power of 16, because this computer can do calculations per second. To make K-computer, Riken and Fujitsu use 82,944 CPUs, and they designed a new system of CPUs that they called “Tofu”. Tofu system is the system that makes every node, one set of CPU, ICC, and Memory, in this computer connects to 6 nodes around itself. It makes this supercomputer continue to work when some nodes are broken. Today, K-computer is used to simulate and analyze data of small things like molecule of medicine to the big things like the movement of air in atmosphere.
To make the K – supercomputer, it’s not only about computer and computer system. Riken and Fujitsu need to design everything from the structure of building that have a good cooling system and can resist earthquake, have ample supply of power, and then finally decide on the location of K-computer. They choose Kobe because the location is convenient and apt for building and keeping the supercomputer. To make one supercomputer, they need to use a lot of manpower from different fields and think how they can make it operate perfectly. They are not stopping at the current K–super computer. Currently, they are they planning to make a post-K computer. It is the thing that very surprises me. It looks like they are not thinking based on the present times, but they are also thinking about the future. I hope that I will see the thing like this in my home town in the future.
Written by Chatr Suttijaree, Thailand