The Shoubu system B supercomputer, which was installed jointly by the RIKEN Advanced Center for Computing and Communication and two private companies—ExaScaler and PEZY Computing—has taken the first position in the Green500 benchmark, which compares the energy consumption per FLOP (floating point operation) of the world’s fastest computers. This is the fourth time that a supercomputer located at RIKEN has taken first place on this benchmark.
Shoubu system B features a new liquid cooling system developed to accommodate the new PEZY-SC2 system boards, allowing the computer to reach 2 petaFLOPS. Japanese systems also took second and third place in this prestigious benchmark.
Upon receiving the award, ACCC Director Himeno said, “I am very grateful for the efforts of our partners in winning this award. I am also happy that just recently, we received a grant from MEXT for the development of software for large-scale calculations, and I believe this will lead to further advances in software for all-purpose use.” Motoaki Saito, President of both Exascaler and PEZY Computing, said, “It was a great honor to regain the top spot for Shoubu system B, after winning the award three times with the predecessor system. We will continue to make upgrades to both systems to enhance their usefulness as supercomputers that can be used for a range of applications.”
The achievement was announced on November 15 at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis in Denver, Colorado.