Japan¡¯s Fugaku supercomputer ¡ª which in June ranked first in the global Top500 list of such machines, the first time for a Japanese machine in about nine years ¡ª was surprisingly not created with the aim of excelling in numerical benchmarks, unlike some of its rivals.
Instead, it was born with an ¡°application-first philosophy,¡± meaning that its exclusive purpose is to dedicate its computational excellence to tackling some of the world¡¯s biggest challenges, such as climate change, says Satoshi Matsuoka, 57, the mastermind behind the project.
¡°Benchmark excellence is not our priority,¡± he said in an interview conducted in near flawless English. Instead, he said, its success is assessed ¡°based on how much we can accelerate the applications that are important in society.¡±
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