ACADEMIA

The K supercomputer has begun full-scale operations in Kobe, according to its developers, Fujitsu and the Riken research institute.

K, the world's first supercomputer to achieve a speed of more than 10 quadrillion computations per second, will be used for such tasks as projecting damage caused by natural disasters, Fujitsu and the state-backed Riken said Friday.

Businesses ranging from automakers to pharmaceutical firms can also use it to shorten product development time, they added.

Researchers began using K on a trial basis after it was completed in late June. The supercomputer was ranked No. 1 in the world in computing speed in June 2011, and retained the top spot five months later.

In the latest rankings released in June, however, K was knocked off its perch by the Sequoia supercomputer at the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.