Communications of the ACM
One Goal: 10 Quadrillion Calculations
On an overcast day in western Japan last week, a truck carrying supercomputer hardware pulled out from a Fujitsu Ltd. factory. Fujitsu workers erupted into cheers. Local children unfurled a sign that read: "We aim to be No. 1 in the world."
The hardware was headed for Kobe, where installation has begun on a government-funded supercomputer project, aimed at giving Japan the world's fastest computer, the "K Computer." K Computer is a play on the Japanese word "kei" for the number 10 quadrillion (10,000 trillion), which will be the number of calculations per second the machine can handle.
The project is expected to be completed in 2012, at a cost of 110 billion yen ($1.32 billion).
From The Wall Street Journal
View Full Article
No entries found