SYSTEMS

On 28 September 2012, the K supercomputer—RIKEN’s award-winning supercomputer based at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science—was for the first time made available for shared use to members of academia and industry.

Jointly developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu since 2006, the K supercomputer has collected top industry accolades in the HPC Challenge and the Gordon Bell Prize, proof of its distinguished performance in real-world applications.

Proposals for using the K computer by researchers and industry bodies were evaluated by the Research Organization for Information Science and Technology (RIST), a non-profit public-service organization that promotes the development and utilization of computational science and technology to support a highly information-oriented society. On 3 September 2012, RIST announced the first selection of research proposals for 62 projects, including 29 general use projects, 8 young researcher projects and 25 industry-related projects, as well as selected projects for HPCI strategic programs.

In the coming years RIKEN and RIST in cooperation with users of the K supercomputer will work together to translate the K supercomputer’s exceptional simulation precision and computational speed into world-class technological and research advancements. RIKEN will set about forging links between computational science and computer science fields and strive to provide a user-friendly computational environment for users of the K computer, while RIST will manage user support and program improvement.