Japan to Blaze New Territory with 130-Petaflop AI Supercomputer

The Tokyo-based National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is taking bids for a new supercomputer that will deliver more than 130 single precision petaflops when completed in late 2017. The system, known as the AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI), is mainly being built for artificial intelligence developers and providers, and will be made available as a cloud resource to researchers and commercial organizations. The ostensible goal is to "rapidly accelerate the deployment of AI into real businesses and society" – that according to a one-page fact sheet presented at the recent SC16 conference in Salt Lake City. But as is apparent from that document, the supercomputer will also support more traditional users of HPC and advanced analytics applications. The cloud aspect of the system will make it possible for outside entities to use its resources.