Bangalore: A Japanese computer, known as 'K Computer', has been ranked the world's most powerful supercomputer. It hit the top chart by out beating its Chinese rival Tianhe-1A that previously ranked first in the list of world's supercomputers.
The device is created by the Japanese computer firm Fujitsu, based in Kobe's Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science.
The Japanese word 'K' stands for 'Kei' meaning 10 quadrillion, or the number of calculations per seconds. It is capable of making 8.2 quadrillion (a quadrillion is 1 followed by 15 zeroes) calculations per second or in computer jargon, 8.2 petaflops. The Chinese Tianhe- 1A, that ranked previously as the fastest computer, was clocked at 2.507 petaflops.
Jack Dongarra, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University Of Tenessee at Knoxville releases a six-monthly list elaborating the top 500 machines, as detected by their ability to run a standard mathematical equation.
According to Professor Dongarra, it is a very impressive machine and lot more powerful than the other computers. The device is made out of 672 computer racks, with 68,544 computer processing units ( CPU's). In order to make the machine faster and powerful, there is a back up plan to raise that number to 800 racks.
According to researchers, the computer can be used in various fields like earth quake stimulation, climate modeling, nuclear research and weapons development and testing. Among other things, businesses also can use the machine for oil exploration and rapid stock trading. The machine is ready for deployment in the year 2012. The machine will undoubtedly be a source of national pride for Japan, at least for the computer scientists who want to seriously win the race for fastest computer.
