Japan plans to build a new supercomputer.

news.yahoo.com...

TOKYO - Japan has plans to start building a supercomputer next year that can operate 73 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer, the government said Monday.

The American Blue Gene/L system supercomputer developed by International Business Machine Corp. at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, currently holds the title of the world's fastest. That machine is capable of 136.8 teraflops, or 136.8 trillion calculations per second, according to Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Japan wants to develop a supercomputer that can operate at 10 petaflops, or 10 quadrillion calculations per second, which is 73 times faster than the Blue Gene, an official of the ministry said on condition of anonymity.

Kyodo News reported that the total amount for the project is estimated between 80 billion and 100 billion yen ($714 million to $893 million) and the ministry will request 10 billion yen ($89 million) for the next fiscal year's budget.

The ministry official could not confirm the figures, saying it has yet to reach a formal decision on the project, which is expected by the end of August.

But he said that if the budget for next year is approved, the ministry hopes to complete the next-generation supercomputer sometime in fiscal 2010, which ends in March 2011.

wow, 73 times faster then the current fastest computer. imagine in the near future where yer labtop is equivalent to the super computer of the 1990s. while the super computers developed for govts only is even faster and are still making even more faster.

and in a year it will be obselete!

WOW, that is impressive...But what for?

Everyone who builds a supercomputer has a certian task that they need a damn quick computer to do. So I was just curious on what task the Japanese had in mind for it.

For Example:
The most powerful is BLUE GENE/L (136.8) , which runs simulations to assess the safety of the nations aging nuclear weapons stockpile. and IBM also holds the #2 spot with Blue Gene, which has the same architecture as its big brothers only its not as powerful comming in at 91.2 TeraFlops.

Then its COLUMBIA (51.9) , which is Nasa's supercomputer, named after the shuttle columbia. It supports exploration projects such as designing flexible fabrics for new space suits and conducting fracture assessment on the International Space Station.

Then its Japans EARTH SIMULATOR (35.9) , which is Jaxa's (japans space agency) and it conducts atmospheric and oceanic simulation, solid-earth modeling, and atomic energy research.

BTW, the Blue Gene/l is slated for an upgrade...which will then put it at 360 Teraflops, which is impressive but pails in comparison to Japans Super Duper Computer.

Here's a interesting informative quote:

As predicted several years ago by the research team behind the TOP500 listing, only systems exceeding the 1 TFlop/s mark on the Linpack were qualified to enter the list this time. The system in No. 500 spot reached 1.166 TFlop/s.

The entry level for the TOP10 exceeds 15 TFlop/s and the entry point for the top 100 moved from 2.026 TFlop/s to 3.412 TFlop/s.

Entry level for the TOP500 is now 1.166 TFlop/s, compared to 850.6 GFlop/s six months ago. The last system on the list would have been listed at position 299 in the last TOP500 just six months ago. This exemplifies the continuous rapid turnover of the TOP500.

The last system (#500) in June 2005 has about the same compute power as ALL 500 systems combined, when the list was first created 13 years ago in June1993.

Total combined performance of all 500 systems on the list is now 1.69 PFlop/s (“petaflops” or thousand “teraflops”), compared to 1.127 PFlop/s six months ago.

Heres the list for the Top 500 SuperComputers in the world today, it shows who made them as well as how fast they are.

TOP 500

Coundt help my self but I have to say this:

I saw this topic on the main page and I immediately thought of the old image of a calculator that hold a large number of small japanese men working on maths problems.

I do wonder though what Japan wants with this computer - 'risk assessment' of Korea or China?

Well their current supercomputer is named "Earth Simulator" so you can use your imagination to think of what their next one will be used for.

ATS Posting habits simulator
Universe Simulator (and this helps us how?)
But most likely your idea: Risk assessment of Korea and China

Or maybe they just feel like playing Half-Life 2 or Doom 3 at 14,000 FPS Heck, I would!

[edit on 7/26/2005 by diehard_democrat]

haha could you imagine playing games on one of those supercomputers, no load times at all : Woohoo lol.

Still though what do they fully use those computers for ? is it just mainly number crunching ?

Originally posted by racos
haha could you imagine playing games on one of those supercomputers, no load times at all : Woohoo lol.

Still though what do they fully use those computers for ? is it just mainly number crunching ?

yeah it waits for your brain to load whatever choice you decide on. "dam lagging human brains, "can't we over clock it with a electric shock?"

Originally posted by diehard_democrat
Well their current supercomputer is named "Earth Simulator" so you can use your imagination to think of what their next one will be used for.

ATS Posting habits simulator

Universe Simulator (and this helps us how?)
But most likely your idea: Risk assessment of Korea and China

Or maybe they just feel like playing Half-Life 2 or Doom 3 at 14,000 FPS

Heck, I would!

[edit on 7/26/2005 by diehard_democrat]

actually it would be 14 to the power of 100 more even more..remember its in teraflops, which is much bigger than u think

nice now i someone can play doom3 without stopping or hanging up

Universe Simulator

They have a computer in Austria doing this already, if it can find a link ill post it.