A supercomputer developed by Riken, a government-backed major research institute, has retained its No. 1 ranking as the world's fastest in computing speed, according to a twice-yearly ranking by the U.S.-European TOP500 project.
The K supercomputer being developed jointly with Fujitsu Ltd. at the institute's facility in Kobe retained the top spot, which it first captured in June as the first Japanese computer to do so in seven years.
The feat came amid intense competition as countries race to develop ever faster supercomputers to conduct simulations in research and development in the fields of science, industry and military.
The name K draws on the Japanese word "kei" for 10 to the 16th power, with the word representing the system's performance goal of 10 petaflops.
The Riken-Fujitsu supercomputer, whose entire system is scheduled to be completed next June, was being considered for the world's No. 1 ranking this time for making 10.510 quadrillion computations per second by using all of its chained 864 computers.
The supercomputer was picked as the world's No. 1 in June for making 8.162 quadrillion computations per second, more than three times faster than a Chinese rival supercomputer that ranked No. 2.