Japanese supercomputer becomes world's No. 1 in computing speeds+

TOKYO, June 20 Kyodo -
Riken, a Japanese state-backed major research institute, said Monday that its supercomputer under development in Kobe has been ranked the world's No. 1 in current computing speeds, the first time in seven years that a Japanese supercomputer has captured the top position.
The supercomputer, nicknamed ''K'' and being developed jointly with Fujitsu Ltd., became a subject of controversy after Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Renho, seeking to cut spending on the next-generation supercomputer project, questioned in 2009 whether Japan needed to pursue the No. 1 position.
Renho, now the minister in charge of eliminating wasteful government spending, told reporters after hearing the ranking, ''That's bright news...I want to salute the people concerned for their efforts.''
A Japanese supercomputer last captured the world's No. 1 spot in 2004 with one developed in Yokohama by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and NEC Corp.
Competition in supercomputer performances, which has long been waged between Japan and the United States, has seen China and India become rivals in recent years. China attained the No. 1 position last year for the first time.
The Tokyo Institute of Technology's TSUBAME 2.0 supercomputer captured the world's fifth post in the ranking, disclosed Monday by the International Supercomputing Conference, according to the school.
''K'' draws upon the Japanese word ''kei'' for 10 to the 16th power, with the word representing the system's performance goal of 10 petaflops. One petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion operations per second.
The Riken-Fujitsu supercomputer, now under development for planned completion in June next year, was picked as the world's No. 1 for making 8,162 trillion computations per second during a system performance test.
Roughly 112 billion yen has been allocated for the project in hopes of using the equipment in making climate-change predictions.
''We cannot help but seek the top although in science and technology, we don't know whether we can realize it,'' said Ryoji Noyori, the 2001 Nobel laureate in chemistry and Riken president. ''We must think that science and technology is the area in which Japan can show its strength.''