Fugaku Is the Supercomputer Tackling Some of the World’s Biggest Problems

The development of Fujitsu’s supercomputer, Fugaku, began in 2014 at the Riken Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. It debuted in 2020, and in the month of June, it secured first place in the TOP500 list, becoming the fastest supercomputer in the world. A key player in achieving that goal was Cadence.

Fugaku not only has the general functions of a CPU, but it also includes interconnect, making it a cutting-edge system large-scale integration (LSI). For huge systems like Fugaku, which uses over 150,000 processors, the amount of power consumed is a huge problem. Fugaku was created with the intent of using its computational power to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges and make it more sustainable.

There are around nine social and scientific problems that Fugaku has ended up solving. One of the most well-known ones is COVID-19 related, as it was used to simulate how droplets spread in the air. It’s even claimed the top spot in Green500, a global ranking based on the energy efficiency of supercomputers.

To develop Fugaku, the Fujitsu team used Cadence’s Palladium emulation platform series. As they’ve used the platform for debugging, they were well-acquainted with the Palladium technology. With its power, they were able to design the supercomputer’s high-density and high-performance LSI. Naoki Shinjo, Fujitsu’s Corporate Executive Officer, said, “I believe that as circuits get even bigger from now, [Cadence will] continue to provide us with tools that can assist logic quality improvements like that in the future too.”  

“Designed with Cadence” is a series of videos that showcases creative products and technologies that are accelerating industry innovation using Cadence tools and solutions. Learn more about how Fujitsu’s delivering breakthrough innovation.

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