A Review of the Japanese Supercomputer Scene

Abstract

The author spent two months in Tokyo during the summer of 1990 studying the Japanese high-end computing scene with the aim of understanding how CERN (and the West in general) may be affected by the increasing strength of the Japanese computer companies.

Several large Japanese manufacturers already have very interesting products on the hardware side, both general mainframes and supercomputers. Today, they claim to have the fastest systems available, and they are working on future technologies like Ga-As or Josephson junctions to further increase their strength.

Up until now, however, the software and communications facilities have not been the strong point of the Japanese offerings. The issue is therefore to try to establish whether the standardisation of system software (via UNIX^{^}) and communications infrastructures, as well as the globalisation of the market place, will allow them to move in rapidly as a major supplier of high-end computing equipment.

The main part of the report is made up of descriptions of the latest supercomputer systems offered by NEC, Fujitsu and Hitachi, as well as a brief overview of their operating systems and current installed base. A reference is made to the systems installed by IBM and CRAY in Japan. A comparison is made to the European supercomputer installed base. The fact that supercomputers were chosen is merely tactical, but these systems do convey very clearly the technological strength of a manufacturer since supercomputers are always built with state-of-the-art technology.

The first two chapters of the report are aimed at providing background material for understanding Japan as a nation. The conclusion tries to predict what will happen in Europe in the large-scale computing area over the next few years, and offers the opinion of the author on how best to profit from the situation.