A team of researchers has won the top prize in the field of supercomputer research based on results it obtained using Japan's "K" supercomputer, the world's fastest computer.
A group of researchers from the government-backed Riken institute, Tsukuba University, the University of Tokyo and Fujitsu Ltd. were awarded the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for Peak Performance by the U.S. Association of Computing Machinery.
It is the first time a Japanese group has won since 2004.
"The research results . . . revealed the electron states of silicon nanowires, which have attracted attention as a core material for next-generation semiconductors," the team said Friday.
"To verify the computational performance of the K supercomputer (being jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu), quantum-mechanical computations were performed on the electron states of a nanowire" it said.
The prize, established in 1987 by American computer scientist Gordon Bell, is awarded annually to promote advancements in computing technology.
In 2004, a Japanese team won the prize thanks to a geomagnetic dynamo simulation that used the first-generation Earth Simulator supercomputer.