The Fugaku supercomputer has 160,000 nodes and 8 million CPU cores, and was the most powerful supercomputer in 2020, before being taken over by Frontier in 2022.
The RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Japan has made a virtual version of its Fugaku supercomputer that can be deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The first version of “Virtual Fugaku” enables users to access the open source prepared and adjusted software suite for Fugaku on cloud services as well as non-Fugaku computers.
RIKEN aimed to create this virtual version to make it easier for anyone to access Fugaku’s research results and advanced research computing platforms.
The first version supports AWS’ cloud computing services, and users can now conduct testing and trials of the software suites.
The virtual supercomputer is leveraging AWS Graviton CPUs which are compatible with Fugaku’s Fujitsu A64FX CPUs, enabling the software to run seamlessly on both.
Users can build a private Fugaku environment for research. According to RIKEN, they can also use a small-scale AWS environment for basic program development and testing, before conducting large-scale computations on Fugaku.
RIKEN has also launched cloud resources centred around the AWS Graviton3E-based Amazon EC2 Hpc7g instance as a trial environment for Virtual Fugaku, which is available to all Fugaku users, allowing them to test out the virtual version.
Satoshi Matsuoka, Director of the RIKEN Centre said, “Virtual Fugaku is one of RIKEN’s platform strategies aimed at greatly expanding the societal contributions of Fugaku’s achievements. The results achieved using Fugaku, such as infectious disease control, weather forecasting, drug discovery, and new material development, are well-known.”
“However, the insights gained from the continuous software maintenance and operations carried out since the development of Fugaku are also significant achievements. We believe it is RIKEN’s mission to give back these achievements to society, including those resulting from such efforts.”
Plans for a Virtual Fugaku were first unveiled in January 2023, and in April 2024 AWS released a blog post titled “Why Fugaku, Japan’s fastest supercomputer, went virtual on AWS.”
The Fugaku supercomputer has 160,000 nodes and 8 million CPU cores, and was the most powerful supercomputer in 2020, before being taken over by Frontier in 2022.
AWS’ Ushio Usami said of the launch: “AWS is honoured to support RIKEN’s efforts to leverage the full potential of cloud computing through “Virtual Fugaku” and to pioneer new horizons in research and development. By expanding the cutting-edge research results cultivated with Fugaku and incorporating the latest cloud services, the forefront of academic research and society will be connected through the cloud. AWS will serve as a bridge, ushering in a new era of computational science and contributing to the infinite possibilities of Japan’s research fields.”
