Japan Introduces World’s Fastest Supercomputer for Astronomy

By News Release | June 03, 2013

 World’s Fastest Supercomputer for Astronomy Introduced by Japan

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said Wednesday that it has introduced the world’s fastest supercomputer for astronomical simulations. The supercomputer was installed at the Mizusawa VLBI Observatory in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and has been used by researchers all over Japan since April.

Developed by Cray Inc. of the United States, the XC30 system can simulate such astronomical events as stellar birth and formation of the galaxy and black holes more realistically and longer than other supercomputers. The supercomputer was named Aterui, a hero in the Tohoku region, which includes Iwate, about 1,200 years ago. It is capable of 502 trillion calculations per second, but the National Observatory plans to double the capability by September.

Copyright (C) 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

News Release
Get the Latest News
x