RIKEN R-CCS

RIKEN R-CCS is a Japanese research center focused on advanced computing, high-performance computing, and computational science. The center develops and operates flagship supercomputers, supports research in climate science, materials science, and artificial intelligence, and coordinates national and international partnerships. It hosts multidisciplinary teams that bridge hardware design, software engineering, and domain science to enable large-scale simulations and data analysis.

Overview

R-CCS operates large-scale computing platforms and fosters projects across computational disciplines. The center integrates machine architectures like Fugaku, Sunway TaihuLight, Summit, Sierra, and FLOPS-driven systems into workflows supporting researchers from University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Tohoku University, and international institutions such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, CERN, and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It engages with vendors and organizations including Fujitsu, ARM Architecture, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, HPE, and Cray Research to prototype hardware and optimize software stacks for exascale targets.

History and Development

The center evolved within RIKEN's network of institutes in response to national strategies for supercomputing and exascale research. Its development followed milestones like the deployment of national systems and projects tied to MEXT initiatives, and collaborative programs with RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) predecessor institutions. Key periods correspond to international efforts exemplified by the TOP500 rankings, the rise of systems such as K computer, and initiatives led by figures associated with HPC coordination among Japanese universities and research agencies. The center's roadmap reflected trends from the Exascale Computing Project and global workshops such as those hosted by ISC High Performance and SC Conference.

Research Programs and Facilities

R-CCS runs programs spanning computational chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, climate modeling, astrophysics, and machine learning. It maintains clusters and testbeds with accelerators from NVIDIA Volta, NVIDIA Ampere, and prototype chips tied to Fujitsu A64FX and future ARM-based designs. Software ecosystems at the center include toolchains integrating OpenMP, MPI, OpenACC, CUDA, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and libraries like BLAS and LAPACK. Computational projects collaborate with domain centers such as National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, National Institute for Materials Science, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, and industrial partners including Toyota, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Sony. Facilities include data centers with cooling solutions influenced by deployments at Fugaku and operational practices derived from Green500 considerations.

Collaborations and Partnerships

R-CCS participates in bilateral and multilateral collaborations with universities, national laboratories, and corporations. Partnerships encompass technology transfer and co-design with Fujitsu, joint research with NVIDIA on GPU acceleration, and algorithm optimization with Intel and ARM. The center hosts collaborative consortia involving University of Tokyo, RIKEN BNL Research Center, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, CEA (France), and Max Planck Society. It engages in programs aligned with international efforts such as the PRACE infrastructure, workshops at Gordon Bell Prize venues, and standards bodies like IEEE and ISO. Training initiatives occur with graduate programs at institutions like Keio University and Waseda University and through summer schools connected to JST-funded projects.

Notable Achievements and Impact

The center contributed to performance optimizations and science outputs recognized in venues including the SC Conference proceedings and awards such as the Gordon Bell Prize. Research enabled by the center has advanced simulations in areas linked to climate change modeling at scales comparable to projects by NOAA and Met Office, materials discovery in collaboration with Toyota Research Institute and National Institute for Materials Science, and AI applications in partnership with RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project and industrial labs. Its infrastructure and co-design activities influenced national strategies around supercomputing, impacted procurement and deployment decisions for systems like Fugaku, and supported publications across journals associated with Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters, and Journal of Computational Physics. The center’s work on energy-efficient operation and scaling informed metrics reported in TOP500 and Green500 lists.

Category:Research institutes in Japan Category:Supercomputer centers Category:RIKEN