K computer
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| K computer | |
|---|---|
| Name | K computer |
| Caption | Photograph of the K computer at RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science |
| Manufacturer | Fujitsu |
| Introduced | 2011 |
| Discontinued | 2019 |
| Cpu | Fujitsu SPARC64 VIIIfx |
| Cores | 705,024 |
| Memory | 1 PB (approx.) |
| Storage | Parallel file system |
| Performance | 10.51 PFLOPS (LINPACK) |
| Os | Linux-based |
| Power | ~12.7 MW |
| Location | Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan |
K computer The K computer was a Japanese supercomputer built at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science and engineered by Fujitsu. It achieved world-leading performance on the TOP500 list and was designed to accelerate research in areas such as climate modeling, disaster prevention, drug discovery, and materials science. The system combined hundreds of thousands of processor cores, a large unified memory system, and a high-performance interconnect to deliver petascale computation for national and international scientific projects.
Overview
The project was led by RIKEN in collaboration with Fujitsu, intended to support initiatives by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Cabinet Office (Japan), and research programs linked to institutions like the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the University of Tokyo, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. Deployment occurred at the Kobe facility operated by the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, joining other major national infrastructure such as J-PARC and facilities associated with the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. The machine aimed to address national priorities including earthquake simulation for the Great Hanshin earthquake, tsunami modeling connected to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and pharmaceutical projects with partners in industry such as Toyota, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.
Architecture and Hardware
The hardware architecture centered on the Fujitsu SPARC64 VIIIfx processor and a proprietary network topology inspired by designs in systems like IBM Blue Gene and large clusters deployed by Cray Research. The cabinet layout, cooling systems, and power delivery reflected engineering practices from facilities at Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Each compute node paired multiple cores with shared memory and local interconnects similar to node designs used in Fujitsu PRIMEHPC products. The system used a high-performance parallel file system analogous to deployments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, and integrated storage techniques reminiscent of the Earth Simulator project. Power management and energy efficiency strategies drew comparisons with efforts at Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the National Supercomputer Centre (Sweden).
Performance and Benchmarks
On the TOP500 list the system reached 10.51 petaflops on the LINPACK benchmark, placing it at the top of lists that also featured competitors such as Sequoia (supercomputer), Tianhe-1A, Titan (supercomputer), and systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Benchmarking and scalability studies referenced methodologies from the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart and practices established by projects at NERSC and PRACE. The K computer was evaluated on real-world codes used in collaborations with groups from the Max Planck Society, CNRS, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, showing strong performance on fluid dynamics kernels, molecular dynamics routines comparable to those run at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, and eigenvalue solvers used in quantum chemistry research at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
Software and Programming Environment
The software stack ran a Linux-based operating system with middleware and libraries supporting standards familiar to developers at institutions like Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Programming models included MPI and OpenMP alongside numerical libraries influenced by work at the Numerical Algorithms Group and algorithmic approaches used in the ScaLAPACK and PETSc projects. Development tools and debuggers were interoperable with ecosystems from GNU Project toolchains and performance analysis frameworks similar to those produced by Intel Corporation and NVIDIA for heterogeneous architectures. Scientific application suites ported to the machine included climate codes related to NCAR, seismic simulators used by USGS, and biomolecular packages akin to those from the Biophysical Society community.
Development and Deployment
The roadmap for design, procurement, and commissioning involved entities such as Fujitsu engineering teams, program offices at RIKEN, and stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Project milestones paralleled timelines seen in international collaborations like those for ITER and large-scale infrastructure projects overseen by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Deployment required coordination with utility providers in Kobe and adherence to standards referenced by organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The system entered service to national researchers and consortium partners and later underwent decommissioning procedures coordinated with Japanese regulatory bodies and international data preservation initiatives.
Legacy and Impact on Supercomputing
The system influenced subsequent designs by Fujitsu and informed national strategies at agencies including RIKEN, JST, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Lessons from its architecture contributed to efforts in exascale computing pursued by projects at Oak Ridge, Argonne, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and European consortia such as PRACE and initiatives at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The K computer's operational experience fed into academic programs at institutions like the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Tohoku University that train the next generation of computational scientists. Its benchmarks and case studies continue to be cited in technical reports by laboratories including Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and CINECA as a milestone in adoption of many-core strategies, energy-aware provisioning, and national-scale research infrastructure.