RIKEN President Hiroshi Matsumoto announced that the successor to the K computer will be named Fugaku, another name for Mount Fuji, which is the tallest mountain peak in Japan. Supercomputer Fugaku, developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu with a custom ARM chip, called A64FX, is expected to debut in 2021. Fujitsu recently announced that the design work has been completed and production work has commenced.
The RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) put out a call for proposals to name the successor to the K computer, up until now known as the post-K computer, back in February. The call resulted in 5,181 suggestions that were evaluated by a special committee.
Like the U.S., China and Europe, Japan is engaged in creating a next-generation leadership computing machine that will exceed or come close to exceeding the exascale threshold. Specifically, “Fugaku” is expected to deliver around 100x the application performance of its predecessor on real-world applications.
In launching the naming contest, RIKEN said it wished “to convey through the new name, first the idea that RIKEN is a world-class research institute operating a state-of-the-art supercomputer, and secondly, that the name should be something that is attractive not only to Japanese speakers but to people around the world.”
“The Post-K computer is being developed to help solve top-priority issues expected in the 2020s,” a message from Dr. Yutaka Ishikawa, Project Leader Development of Post-K supercomputer, states. “With the completion of the Post-K computer, we expect that problems taking a year to solve on the current system will only take a few days on the new one. As a result, we will also be able to address a broader range of problems and make use of the new supercomputer in novel, innovative ways. The new system will become an essential tool for solving problems in the areas of bioscience, disaster prevention, environmental issues, energy, and manufacturing.”