Japan Rises to Reclaim Top 500 Supercomputing Title

June 22, 2011 | Japan has claimed the supercomputing crown for the first time in seven years with the K computer, a machine jointly developed by Fujitsu and the RIKEN research institute. The machine topped the latest Top500 rankings of the world's fastest computers released on June 20. The last time a Japanese supercomputer grabbed the title was in 2004, when NEC's Earth Simulator was ranked the fastest supercomputer in the world. The K computer is far faster than rivals, boasting more than three times the number-crunching power of the previous holder of the title, China's Tianhe-1A, which was ranked second in the latest list. The United States has five superomputers in the top ten rankings. Asahi Shimbun