Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science

Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science
Name	Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science
Established	1999
Dissolved	2018
Type	National research institute
Location	Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Affiliations	RIKEN

Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science was a Japanese national research institute focused on high-performance computing, computational science, and numerical simulation. It operated as part of RIKEN's network of research centers and gained international attention for hosting the supercomputer K computer, contributing to fields ranging from climate modeling to materials science and bioinformatics. The institute engaged with global academic centers and industrial partners to drive applied research in computational engineering, physics, chemistry, and life sciences.

History

The institute was established within RIKEN during the late 1990s and early 2000s amid initiatives led by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and regional authorities in Hyōgo Prefecture and the city of Kobe. Its formation followed national strategies associated with the e-Japan policy and the Science and Technology Basic Plan, aligning with programs such as the RIKEN Project for Research Innovation. Early leadership coordinated with organizations including the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the National Institute of Informatics, and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. Over its operational period, the institute interacted with research groups from University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Tohoku University, and Nagoya University, as well as international centers like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

Research and Facilities

Research programs bridged computational approaches in collaboration with units such as RIKEN Computational Science Center and laboratories studying computational fluid dynamics, quantum chemistry, genomics, seismology, and astrophysics. Facilities hosted specialized laboratories for algorithm development, visualization, and data assimilation used by researchers from institutions like Imperial College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, and Max Planck Society institutes. The institute maintained partnerships with industrial entities including Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for systems engineering, and collaborated with consortia such as the Supercomputing Consortium and regional innovation clusters associated with Port Island in Kobe. Support infrastructure included machine rooms, power conditioning, and cooling systems designed to meet standards set by vendors like IBM and Cray Research.

Supercomputing Systems

The institute became widely known for hosting the K computer, a petascale system developed in partnership with Fujitsu and funded under national initiatives. The K computer achieved recognition on the TOP500 list and was evaluated alongside systems such as Blue Gene installations, Earth Simulator, and machines at Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Subsequent and complementary systems, testbeds, and prototype clusters included hardware leveraging processors from vendors related to the Fujitsu SPARC64, accelerators comparable to NVIDIA Tesla, and networking technologies influenced by standards from InfiniBand forums and companies like Mellanox Technologies. Performance benchmarking engaged tools and communities including the High Performance Linpack benchmark and collaborations with HPCG developers. The institute also ran data-centric facilities for workflows comparable to those at National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and storage solutions akin to Panasas and Lustre deployments.

Major Projects and Applications

Projects addressed large-scale simulations relevant to national priorities and global science. Applications included whole-earth seismological modeling in concert with Japan Meteorological Agency datasets, climate projection studies related to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, materials discovery connected to Materials Genome Initiative–style workflows, and multiscale simulations for drug discovery and protein folding research comparable to work at European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Broad Institute. Collaborative projects interfaced with initiatives such as the Human Genome Project legacy, Earth Simulator follow-ons, and disaster-mitigation modeling used by Hyogo Prefecture after the Great Hanshin earthquake. Computational chemistry and condensed-matter projects cited methods from groups at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and Paul Scherrer Institute. The institute supported numerical weather prediction efforts analogous to research at Met Office and operational links with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for space-science simulations.

Organization and Funding

The organizational structure included research divisions, administrative offices, and technical support units reporting to RIKEN headquarters in Wako, Saitama. Funding was a mixture of core allocations from national science budgets overseen by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, competitive grants from bodies like the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and industry contracts with partners including Fujitsu and Sumitomo Corporation. The institute participated in international funding arrangements and exchange programs coordinated with entities such as the European Commission, National Science Foundation, and bilateral science agreements with United States and South Korea agencies. Talent recruitment attracted researchers holding appointments or fellowships from University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Collaborations extended to academic, governmental, and corporate partners. Academic links involved universities such as Kobe University, Ritsumeikan University, Hiroshima University, and Waseda University, and international research centers like CERN and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Industrial partnerships included hardware vendors and integrators like Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, Panasonic, and cloud-tier firms influenced by Amazon Web Services research programs. The institute engaged in consortiums with agencies such as the Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, National Institute for Environmental Studies, and collaboration frameworks parallel to those at Joint Genome Institute and European Research Council projects. Exchange and training programs connected staff with laboratories at Peking University, Seoul National University, National Taiwan University, and research institutes in Singapore and Australia.

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