- By Kamal Kumar
- Tue, 24 Sep 2024 05:51 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Japan Supercomputer News: Amid the pressing global artificial intelligence race, Japan has announced that it is building a supercomputer, which will have 1000 times more computational power than any other such machine in the world. The Japan supercomputer will be completed by 2030 and the Asian island country has invested around USD 780 Million on the super project. The 'Zeta-class' machine will help Japan to be a leader in the upcoming world of artificial intelligence.
The development of the smartest supercomputer in Japan will begin in 2025 and it will succeed the country's flagship supercomputer, Fugaku, said the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Once completed, the Japanese supercomputer might clock a speed of zetaFLOPS scale, which has never been achieved before.
A FLOPS or Floating-point operation per second is a unit to measure the speed of a computer whereas a floating-point operation is a single calculation.
A supercomputer with a speed of 1 zetaFLOPS can perform one sextillion calculations per second—that's a 1 followed by 21 zeros. In comparison, the fastest supercomputers today have only recently reached the exaFLOPS level, which means they can handle just over one quintillion calculations per second—a 1 followed by 18 zeros.
According to Japanese media, the development of such computer is being done to keep up with the development of scientific research in the age of artificial intelligence or AI.
Supercomputers have been incredibly helpful to scientists, according to ScienceAlert. They allow researchers to simulate black holes, discover new materials, predict Earth's future, and explore the basics of mathematics. As these machines become more powerful, their abilities will keep growing.
Unlike quantum computers, supercomputers are quite similar to the desktops and laptops we use daily. They rely on the same components—processors, memory, and storage—but on a much larger and more advanced scale.
India's Most Advanced Supercomputers
India's AI supercomputer, AIRAWAT, ranks 75th globally, enhancing India's AI capabilities. Installed at C-DAC Pune under the National Program on AI, it boasts a peak compute capacity of 200 AI Petaflops, driving advancements in healthcare, agriculture, and education.
India's second most advanced supercomputer, "PARAM Siddhi-AI," ranks among the world's top supercomputers. With a processing speed of 5.267 petaflops, it supports AI research, weather modelling, drug discovery, and complex simulations, significantly boosting India's computational capabilities.