Gov't supercomputer project hits snag as 2 key players withdraw+

TOKYO, May 14 Kyodo -
A government-led project to develop next-generation supercomputers will have to
be substantially reviewed as two corporate participants intend to withdraw from
it, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.
NEC Corp. said earlier in the day that it will not participate in the
manufacturing phase of the project so that the company can stem massive
research and development costs amid deteriorating business conditions.
The decision by NEC prompted Hitachi Ltd. to decide on its effective withdrawal
from the project because of their joint work, Hitachi officials said.
The project led by the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and
Technology since 2006, is aimed at launching the world's fastest supercomputers
that will operate at a maximum speed of 10 petaflops, or 10 quadrillion
floating point operations, per second. The project is now at the final stage of
detailed system design to combine vector- and scalar-type computation methods.
NEC and Hitachi have been working to design a vector processor.
The government has set aside around 115 billion yen for the project, which is
expected to be completed by 2012 for applications such as simulating
experiments for developing new drugs, studying the formation of galaxies or
predicting the paths of typhoons.
Fujitsu Ltd., which is in charge of designing a scalar processor, will continue
to participate in the project, the sources said.
NEC's decision is ''extremely regrettable'' because the project has been
promoted on the basis of cooperation, said an official at the science and
technology ministry.
As the planned supercomputer technology is indispensable for Japan, the project
will continue after necessary adjustments, the official added.
At Rikagaku Kenkyusho, an independent administrative research institute which
is playing a leading role in the project, an official said, ''We will seek to
develop the world's fastest scalar-type supercomputer.'' But the institute is
likely to halt ongoing construction of a laboratory building in Kobe.
NEC, which incurred a group net loss of 296.65 billion yen in fiscal 2008 ended
March, would have shouldered over 10 billion yen in costs if it had continued
to participate in the project.
The company has been one of the global leaders in the field and plans to
continue development of cutting-edge supercomputers even after it withdraws
from the government project. An NEC-made supercomputer, called the Earth
Simulator, is used by the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology
for global warming projections.
==Kyodo