Riken and Fujitsu today announced that operational testing of their jointly developed K computer has been completed as of June 29. The K computer will now be available for limited operations while it undergoes operational environment settings, adjustments, and user registration. It is due to go into full-scale operations for shared use at the end of September. The K computer brings together leading-edge technologies, including ultrafast and energy-efficient CPUs and a network capable of an immense amount of interconnectivity for high-performance and exceptional reliability. Installation of the supercomputer began in September 2010, and by the end of August 2011 all 864 racks had been delivered and installed.
The K computer, jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu, is part of the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI) initiative led by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The K computer is expected to be available for shared use in 2012. The “K computer” is the registered trademark of Riken, and has been used for this supercomputer project since July 2010. “K” comes from the Japanese Kanji letter “Kei” which means ten peta or 10 to the 16th power. The logo for the K computer based on the Japanese character for Kei, was selected in October 2010. In its original sense, “Kei” expresses a large gateway, and it is hoped that the system will be a new gateway to computational science.
