Japan already home to one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, Fugaku, is gearing up for an ambitious leap in computational power. The country’s scientists are planning to build Fugaku Next, a supercomputer expected to be 1,000 times faster than current systems. If successful, it would be the world’s first ‘zetta-class’ supercomputer, capable of performing at speeds measured in zettaFLOPS equivalent to a sextillion (1 followed by 21 zeros) floating-point operations per second.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has greenlit the project, with construction set to begin in 2025 and the system anticipated to go live by 2030. The project is estimated to cost 110 billion Japanese Yen (US$780 million). Once operational, Fugaku Next will initially take on tasks currently handled by Fugaku but with vastly greater processing capabilities.
A zettaFLOPS machine is a significant upgrade from the exaFLOPS supercomputers of today, like the U.S.-based Frontier, which can perform 1.1 quintillion operations per second. By comparison, Fugaku Next’s zettaFLOPS capacity will multiply that speed by 1,000.
The official project outline emphasizes the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the machine’s applications. AI, particularly generative AI models like ChatGPT, demands immense computational power, and Fugaku Next could excel in handling these workloads with unprecedented speed and efficiency.
Supercomputers like Fugaku have already proven invaluable in scientific research, ranging from simulating black holes and climate modeling to advancing materials science. As these machines become more powerful, their potential applications will expand, offering more precise and comprehensive insights.
Unlike quantum computers, supercomputers rely on traditional computational architecture processors, memory, and storage but scaled up dramatically. This makes them particularly effective in solving complex simulations with countless variables, such as weather forecasting and space exploration missions.
Fugaku Next is set to establish a new standard in computing power, and if all goes as planned, the world will witness the dawn of a new zetta-class supercomputing era by 2030.
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