U.S. Dethrones Japan's Fugaku As World's Fastest Computer

Japanese supercomputer Fugaku has lost its position as the world's fastest in terms of computing speed, ranking second after topping the list in a twice-yearly ranking the last four times in a row, its developer Riken research institute said, Mainichi Japan reported.

Photo Insert: Portion of Frontier, displaying liquid cooling technology and HPE Cray EX compute blades

Named after an alternative word for Mt. Fuji, it lost the top spot to Frontier supercomputer of the United States' Oak Ridge National Laboratory, whose speeds run 2.5 times faster than that of Fugaku's, Riken said, citing results from the US-European TOP500 project.

Fugaku also came second in a project known as HPL-AI, which ranks artificial intelligence capability. However, Fugaku maintained first place for the fifth time in a row in TOP500's high-performance conjugate gradient which focuses on industrial use, as well as in Graph500's list for big data analytics, according to Riken.

"This shows that Fugaku continues to be one of the world's leading supercomputers in a field where competition and development are fierce," said Satoshi Matsuoka, director of the institute's Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, which hosts Fugaku.

Jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu Ltd., the supercomputer launched partial operations in April 2020 and full-scale operations in March 2021.

Fugaku was used to visualize how droplets that could carry the coronavirus spread from the mouth and to help explore possible treatments for COVID-19. Fugaku's predecessor, the K supercomputer, was decommissioned in 2019, Kyodo News also reported.

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