Fugaku (supercomputer)

Fugaku (supercomputer)
Name	Fugaku
Caption	A section of the Fugaku supercomputer at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science.
Active	2020 – present
Location	RIKEN Center for Computational Science, Kobe, Japan
Purpose	Scientific research, industrial development, societal problem-solving
Architect	RIKEN, Fujitsu
Operating system	Linux (RHEL-based)
Power	≈ 30–40 MW
Speed	442 petaFLOPS (LINPACK)
Cost	≈ ¥130 billion
Ranking	1st (TOP500, June 2020 – November 2021)
Website	https://www.r-ccs.riken.jp/en/fugaku/

Fugaku (supercomputer). Fugaku is a massively parallel supercomputer jointly developed by the Japanese research institute RIKEN and the technology corporation Fujitsu. It is installed at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, and was officially launched for full-scale operation in 2021. The system is named after an alternative name for Mount Fuji, symbolizing its lofty goals for Japanese high-performance computing.

Overview

Fugaku was designed as a national flagship project to succeed the K computer, Japan's previous top-ranked system. Its primary mission is to tackle a wide range of Grand Challenge problems in science, industry, and society. The system achieved the top position on the prestigious TOP500 list in June 2020, marking the first time a Japanese supercomputer led the rankings since the K computer in 2011. Beyond raw speed, Fugaku is also designed to excel in broader performance metrics, including the HPCG and HPL-AI benchmarks, showcasing its versatility for both traditional computational science and emerging artificial intelligence workloads.

Development and history

The development project, initially known as the "Post-K Computer," was launched in 2014 with funding from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The core development team at RIKEN and Fujitsu aimed to create a system roughly 100 times more application-performance capable than the K computer. Key architectural decisions were made to prioritize real-world application performance over theoretical peak FLOPS. The system was unveiled to the public as "Fugaku" in 2019, and a partial configuration began operation in April 2020 to support research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It entered full commercial operation in March 2021, following its deployment across 432 racks at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science.

Hardware and architecture

Fugaku is built around a custom system on a chip (SoC) known as the A64FX, which was developed by Fujitsu and implements the ARM architecture. This marked a historic shift, as Fugaku became the first ARM-based supercomputer to lead the TOP500 list. Each A64FX processor integrates 48 computational cores and features high-bandwidth HBM2 memory, utilizing a technology called SVE for efficient vector processing. The complete system comprises 158,976 nodes connected via Tofu Interconnect D, a proprietary high-speed network fabric developed by Fujitsu. This architecture provides exceptional energy efficiency and memory bandwidth, which are critical for data-intensive applications in fields like molecular dynamics and climate modeling.

Software and programming

The primary operating system is a custom Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The software stack is designed to support a diverse programming environment, including standard languages like Fortran, C, and C++, as well as frameworks for parallel computing such as OpenMP and MPI. A significant software effort was the co-design of the A64FX hardware with optimized libraries and compilers, including the Fujitsu Compiler and mathematical libraries tuned for the ARM SVE instruction set. This co-design ensures that applications in domains like computational fluid dynamics and materials science can fully exploit the hardware's capabilities.

Performance and achievements

In its debut on the TOP500 list in June 2020, Fugaku achieved 415.5 petaFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark, and this was later improved to 442 petaFLOPS. It simultaneously claimed first place on other major benchmarks, including HPCG, HPL-AI, and the Graph500, an unprecedented quadruple-crown achievement. It maintained the number one position on the TOP500 for four consecutive lists until being surpassed by Frontier (supercomputer) in 2022. Fugaku also received the Gordon Bell Prize in 2021 for its application in COVID-19 research, demonstrating its impact on urgent global challenges.

Applications and research

Fugaku is utilized for a vast portfolio of projects through initiatives like the Strategic Program for Innovative Research and industrial partnerships. Its computational power is applied to urgent societal issues, including drug discovery for diseases like COVID-19, high-resolution weather forecasting, and the development of new materials for batteries and semiconductors. Research spans fundamental sciences, such as simulations of the universe and quantum chromodynamics, as well as applied engineering for autonomous vehicles and disaster prevention. By providing resources to thousands of researchers from academia, government institutes like the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and private companies, Fugaku serves as a cornerstone for Japan's scientific and technological advancement.

Category:Supercomputers Category:Computing in Japan Category:RIKEN Category:Fujitsu