The K computer, named after the Japanese word "kei" , which stands for 10quadrillion , is a supercomputer being produced by Fujitsu at the RIKEN Advanced institute for computational science campus in kobe,japan.
On 20 June 2011, the top500 Project Committee announced that K topped the LINPACK benchmark with the performance of 8.162 petaflops.What's that mean? It means it can process 8 quadrillion calculations per second. Maybe that number will be more impressive to you in numeric form: 8,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second.
The system is still under construction and will enter service in November 2012 with 864 cabinets. It currently uses 68,544 2.0GHz 8-core SPARC64 VIIIfx processor packed in 672 cabinets, for a total of 548,352 cores, manufactured by Fujitsu with 45nm CMOS process technology. Each cabinet contains 96 compute nodes in addition to 6 IO nodes. Each compute node contains a single processor and 16 GB of memory. Its water cooling system minimizes failure rate and power use.
The K uses a special six-dimensional torus network interconnect called Tofu, and a Tofu-optimized massage passing interface based on the open-source Open MPI library.Users can create application programs adapted to either a one-, two-, or three-dimensional torus network
The system adopts a two-level local/global file system with parallel/distributed functions, and provides users with an automatic staging function for moving files between global and local file systems. Fujitsu developed an optimized parallel file system based on Lustre called Fujitsu Exabyte File System, scalable to several hundred petabytes
The K also reports the highest total power consumption of 9.89 MW, while the average power consumption of a TOP 10 system is 4.3 MW. Its power usage is roughly that of 10,000 houses and its annual running costs are US$10 million.
When configuration of the K computer is complete in 2012, it is designed to achieve LINPACK performance of 10 petaflops. It will be widely used in a variety of computational science fields where it is expected to contribute to the generation of world-class research results. The K computer is a wholly made-in-Japan supercomputer, from the research and development of the processors, to system design and manufacturing. Use of the K computer is expected to have a groundbreaking impact in fields ranging from global climate research, meteorology, disaster prevention, and medicine, thereby contributing to the creation of a prosperous and secure society. RIKEN and Fujitsu will continue to work tirelessly toward completing the system's deployment in 2012.
On 20 June 2011, the top500 Project Committee announced that K topped the LINPACK benchmark with the performance of 8.162 petaflops.What's that mean? It means it can process 8 quadrillion calculations per second. Maybe that number will be more impressive to you in numeric form: 8,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second.
The system is still under construction and will enter service in November 2012 with 864 cabinets. It currently uses 68,544 2.0GHz 8-core SPARC64 VIIIfx processor packed in 672 cabinets, for a total of 548,352 cores, manufactured by Fujitsu with 45nm CMOS process technology. Each cabinet contains 96 compute nodes in addition to 6 IO nodes. Each compute node contains a single processor and 16 GB of memory. Its water cooling system minimizes failure rate and power use.
The K uses a special six-dimensional torus network interconnect called Tofu, and a Tofu-optimized massage passing interface based on the open-source Open MPI library.Users can create application programs adapted to either a one-, two-, or three-dimensional torus network
The system adopts a two-level local/global file system with parallel/distributed functions, and provides users with an automatic staging function for moving files between global and local file systems. Fujitsu developed an optimized parallel file system based on Lustre called Fujitsu Exabyte File System, scalable to several hundred petabytes
The K also reports the highest total power consumption of 9.89 MW, while the average power consumption of a TOP 10 system is 4.3 MW. Its power usage is roughly that of 10,000 houses and its annual running costs are US$10 million.
When configuration of the K computer is complete in 2012, it is designed to achieve LINPACK performance of 10 petaflops. It will be widely used in a variety of computational science fields where it is expected to contribute to the generation of world-class research results. The K computer is a wholly made-in-Japan supercomputer, from the research and development of the processors, to system design and manufacturing. Use of the K computer is expected to have a groundbreaking impact in fields ranging from global climate research, meteorology, disaster prevention, and medicine, thereby contributing to the creation of a prosperous and secure society. RIKEN and Fujitsu will continue to work tirelessly toward completing the system's deployment in 2012.
