K computer
The K computer – named for the Japanese word/numeral "kei" (京), meaning 10 quadrillion (1016) – was a supercomputer manufactured by Fujitsu, installed at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science campus in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The K computer was based on a distributed memory architecture with over 80,000 compute nodes. It was used for a variety of applications, including climate research, disaster prevention and medical research. The K computer's operating system was based on the Linux kernel, with additional drivers designed to make use of the computer's hardware.
| Active | June 2011 – August 2019 |
|---|---|
| Sponsors | MEXT, Japan |
| Operators | Fujitsu |
| Location | Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science |
| Architecture | 88,128 SPARC64 VIIIfx processors, Tofu interconnect |
| Power | 12.6 MW |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Speed | 10.51 petaflops (Rmax) |
| Ranking | TOP500: 18th, as of November 2018 |
In June 2011, TOP500 ranked K the world's fastest supercomputer, with a computation speed of over 8 petaflops, and in November 2011, K became the first computer to top 10 petaflops. It had originally been slated for completion in June 2012. In June 2012, K was superseded as the world's fastest supercomputer by the American IBM Sequoia.
As of November 2018, the K computer held third place for the HPCG benchmark. It held the first place until June 2018, when it was superseded by Summit and Sierra.
The K supercomputer was decommissioned on 30 August 2019. In Japan, the K computer was succeeded by the Fugaku supercomputer, in 2020, which took the top spot, and is three times faster than 2nd most powerful supercomputer.