Japan's supercomputer "Fugaku" regains the world's first place after eight and a half years

Recently Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

日本のスパコン「富岳」、8年半ぶり世界一奪還

科学&新技術

2020/6/23 0:00 (2020/6/23 5:32更新)

スーパーコンピューターの計算速度を競う最新の世界ランキングが22日公表され、理化学研究所と富士通が開発した「富岳（ふがく）」が首位を獲得した。世界一は日本として8年半ぶりで、高速コンピューター開発を主導する米国と中国の2強体制に風穴を開けた。デジタル社会が到来し、高速計算機の進化は新しい薬や素材の探索、人工知能（AI）の活用などに革新をもたらす。富岳で新たに手にした計算力を企業や大学が優れた成果につなげていけるかが問われる。

世界ランキングは専門家による国際会議で、毎年6月と11月に公表される。22日の最新版で富岳は1秒間に41.5京（京は1兆の1万倍）回の計算性能を示し、2位の米「サミット」（同14.8京回）に大差をつけて首位に立った。3位は米国、4位と5位は中国のスパコンだった。

スパコンは半導体の進化とともに性能を高めてきた。富岳は、富士通が設計・開発した高性能のCPU（中央演算処理装置）を約15万個そろえた。効率よく通信するネットワークで結んで最適に制御。大量の計算を瞬時にできるようにした。

各国が国を挙げてスパコンを開発するのは、現代社会に欠かせない研究インフラだからだ。新薬の開発は一般に、膨大な数の物質から病原体に効く候補を探す。

4月に始まった富岳を活用した新型コロナウイルス感染症対策では、高度な計算により、約2千種の既存薬から治療薬候補を選ぶ研究が進む。

富岳では、2011年に計算速度で世界一になった国産スパコン「京（けい）」が1年かかるほどの実験を数日でこなせる。1週間で数万個の物質を試せる。

防災への応用でも、数十平方キロメートルの都市を対象に、地震と津波の複合災害が起きた際の避難経路などを予測できる。

官民合わせて約1300億円を投じた富岳は、応用をにらんだシミュレーションを高速でこなし、そこで生まれるデータはイノベーションの鍵になる。21年から始まる本格運用では、日本の研究開発力や産業競争力の強化をもくろむ。

ただ、日本の首位奪還は、かつてない計算速度を目指す新たな国際競争の幕開けでもある。

スパコンは核実験のシミュレーションなどにも使われ、国の科学技術力や安全保障に影響を及ぼす。先端技術を巡って覇権争いを演じる米中は1～2年以内に毎秒100京回の計算をこなす次世代のスパコンを投入してくる見通しだ。今回の首位を日本が獲得したのは、スパコンが世代交代の時期を迎えるなかで、米中より早く次世代機を投入できた面もある。

資金力で劣る日本が米中と同じ土俵で闘い続けるのは難しい。世界最速の称号は、むしろ富岳を活用してどう成果を生み出すかといった課題を日本に突きつける。

世界では次世代の高速計算機である量子コンピューターの開発も進む。デジタル技術が社会を変えるなか、日本として高速コンピューターの技術をどう開発し、活用していくか、中長期の戦略を描くことも必要になる。（AI量子エディター　生川暁、三隅勇気）

Translation

The latest world ranking regarding competition in the calculation speed of supercomputers was announced on the 22nd, and "Fugaku" that was developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu took the top spot. Japan, for the first time in eight and a half years, broke the twin leader of US and China in the world's best in the development of high-speed computers. With the advent of the digital society, the evolution of high-speed computers could bring about innovations in the search for new drugs and materials, and also the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The question was whether companies and universities were able to use the computing power they newly acquired at Fugaku to achieve outstanding results.

The world ranking was decided according to an international conference of experts and published respetively in June and November. In the latest version dated 22nd, Fugaku demonstrated 41.5 kyo (one kyo is 10,000 times more than 1 trillion) calculation performance per second, making a big difference to the ranked second US "Summit" (14.8 kyo times). The third place was a US supercomputer, and the fourth and fifth were Chinese supercomputers.

Supercomputers had improved their performance as semiconductors also evolved. Fugaku collected together about 150,000 high-performance CPUs (Central Processing Units) designed and developed by Fujitsu. It gave optimal control by connecting a network that could communicate efficiently. A large amount of calculation could now be done instantly.

Individual countries developed supercomputers because it was a research infrastructure that was essential to modern society. The development of a new drug generally sought from a large number of substances to pick out a candidate for a pathogen.

In the new coronavirus infectious disease control that utilized Fudake which was started in April, based on sophisticated research, advance was made to select therapeutic drug candidates from approximately 2,000 existing drugs.

Compared to the national supercomputer "Kei" which was the world's fastest computing speed in 2011 that would need a year complete an experiment, Fudake could do it in a few days. It could try tens of thousands of substances in a week.

In the application to disaster prevention, for a city of several tens of square kilometers, it was possible to predict the evacuation route in the event of a combined disaster of an earthquake and a tsunami.

Fudake, which the public and private sectors had invested approximately 130 billion yen, was able to perform application simulations at high speed to get results, and the data generated would be the key to innovation. Full-scale operation could be started in 2021 and the aim was to strengthen Japan's R&D capabilities and industrial competitiveness.

However, with Japan regaining a top position, a new international competition aiming at unprecedented calculation speed had begun.

Supercomputers were also used for simulations of nuclear tests, etc.; it affected national science and technology in addition to security. The United States and China, which were fighting for hegemony over advanced technology, were expected to introduce a next-generation supercomputer within a year or two that could perform calculations of 100 kyo a second. Japan was able to take the lead in a time when a generation change was coming was, in a way, that Japan was faster than the United States and China in using the next generation supercomputer.

It was difficult for Japan, which had poor financial resources, to continue to fight on the same level as the United States and China. Rather, the fastest title in the world posed a challenge to Japan such as on how to utilize Fudake to produce results.

The development of quantum computers, which were the next-generation high-speed computers, was progressing in the world. As digital technology was changing society, it was also necessary to draw up a medium- to long-term strategy on how Japan should develop and utilize high-speed computer technology.

              So, Japan is regaining its first place after several years. I hope that it can continue to invest in science and technology for the benefit of mankind. I always admire the scientific success of Japan which is a country with little natural resources but has a lot of natural disasters such as earthquake and tsunami.