High performance computing beyond the peta scale in Japan

Since last year, with funding from the Japanese government, RIKEN has been conducting a project to build a next generation supercomputer, which will be capable of carrying out peta or higher scale simulations and will be in full operation by the end of FY2011. Its main objectives are to keep leading edge hardware technology inside Japan, and also to stimulate the use of simulations in R and D in academia and industry in order to investigate sophisticated natural phenomena in ways which are only possible with such large scale simulations, for example, designing novel functional materials to create future industrial technologies. To promote this kind of use of the supercomputer, nano-science and life sciences have been selected as grand challenges, in which specially designed supercomputer codes are to be developed. This paper presents the key features of the project