Fugaku is Japan’s supercomputer that has been developed as a core system for the innovative High-Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI) promoted by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). In 2014, RIKEN and Fujitsu began joint development of Fugaku and completed delivery of all racks in May 2020. Since then, they have developed and optimized the user environment in preparation for the commencement of shared use.
In the meantime, Fugaku has claimed the world’s top spot for two consecutive terms in June and November 2020 in four categories on the major high-performance computer rankings: the TOP500, HPCG, HPL-AI, as well as the Graph 500, and has been used on a trial basis under the “Program for Promoting Research on the Supercomputer Fugaku”, “research projects aimed to combat COVID-19”, etc. since April 2020. In these trials, two projects, “Study on Large-Scale Numerical Fluid Simulation” and “Largest Ever Meteorological Calculation” have already been selected as the ACM Gordon Bell Prize finalists. In addition, research on “Prediction and Countermeasures for Infection by Virus Contaminated Droplet in Indoor Environment” has led to changes in people’s lifestyles, and Fugaku is already making steady progress toward becoming a key technological platform for science and for building Society 5.0.
RIKEN and Fujitsu will continue to cooperate to ensure stable operation of Fugaku while contributing to the resolution of social issues and the acceleration of leading-edge research through the development of the world’s best operation technology, the enhancement of the user environment, and the development and provision of various supercomputing technologies.
In addition, RIST, which is the Registered Institution for Facilities Use Promotion, has selected 74 projects for public use and industrial use in FY 2021 through an open call for proposals so that the “Program for Promoting Research on the Supercomputer Fugaku” can be continued, and a wide range of researchers, etc. can immediately start full-scale use after the beginning of shared use of Fugaku. Currently, RIST is calling for proposals in several categories, and researchers who are interested are invited to apply.
Use of Fugaku and future development
Fugaku has won four supercomputer titles for the second consecutive period in the world’s major high-performance computing rankings and is making full use of its outstanding potential to solve urgent social and scientific problems. With its outstanding computational power, Fugaku will play an important role in building Society 5.0, the Super Smart Society, through the following technologies.
Simulation
Fugaku boasts up to 100 times the application performance of the K computer, allowing for simulations of “high resolution” “long duration” “large-scale” and “multiple case”. It is expected to have various impacts ranging from solving familiar social problems to helping improve understanding of fundamental science.
AI (artificial intelligence), data science
The next generation of deep learning-based AI is computationally intensive and will require large-scale supercomputing resources. Fugaku’s CPU possesses high performance in “convolution operations,” which are central to deep learning, and is connected by a network with superior communication performance, and it will be leveraged for AI and data science research.
Fusion of simulation and AI/data science
Fugaku makes it possible to combine simulation with AI and data science at the highest level in the world. For instance, AI can be used to search for parameters necessary for simulation and to extrapolate simulation results. Conversely, simulation can generate a large number of data for AI to learn.
The application of these methods with Fugaku will offer the following anticipated outcomes:
- Acceleration of new drug development by performing high-speed, high-precision drug discovery simulation
- Early detection of diseases and advancement of preventive medicine through medical big data analysis and biological simulations
- Accurate prediction of tornadoes and heavy rain through weather big data analysis
- Simulation of earthquake, tsunami, and evacuation routes at the meter-level
- Development of low-cost organic solar batteries and high-efficiency solar batteries, artificial photosynthesis, high-efficiency fuel cells and storage batteries, and extraction of methane from methane hydrate
- Development of low rare earth permanent magnet for generators and electric vehicles
- Accelerating the creation of new devices and materials to for next-generation industries
- Dramatic reductions in development time and costs by partially replacing the actual testing of airplanes and automobiles
- Increased insight into fundamental questions of science, such as when and how matter was created in the universe
