Japan Supercomputer Breaks Own World Record
By wchung | 06 Sep, 2025

The Japanese supercomputer known simply as “K” has broken its own record as the world’s fastest computer by performing at 10 petaflops (10 quadrillion computations per second), Riken and Fujitsu said Wednesday.

The 10.51 petaflops performance logged by K shattered the record of 8.16 petaflops which it set in June to attain the top spot in the world ranking of computing speed. K was developed in Kobe by Riken, a major state-backed research institute, and industrial electronics giant Fujitsu.

K is powered by 88,000 processors distributed over 864 cabinets. The system was assembled in August and is undergoing software adjustment for its planned completion in June of 2012. It will become available for shared use by next November.

K was developed at a cost of about 112 billion yen ($1.48 bil.) provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology which plans to use it for the development of drugs, solar cells and semiconductor materials, predictions of weather phenomena and simulations of earthquakes and tsunami.

In 2009 the project had come under fire from opposition lawmaker Renho, who is currently state minister in charge of administrative reform, because Japan is struggling with a huge national budget deficit.

“The K computer is a key national technology that will help lay the foundation for Japan’s further progress,” said Riken President Ryoji Noyori, a chemistry Nobel laureate, in response to Renho’s challenge over its cost.