The Large Scale Parallel Simulation Performed on the K computer was Awarded the ACM Gordon Bell Prize 2012

A research group of University of Tsukuba, RIKEN, and Tokyo Institute of Technology announced that the ACM Gordon Bell Prize was awarded to that group for the large scale parallel simulation using the "K computer" at SC12, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis held in Salt Lake City, on November 15 (US Pacific Standard Time). The group performed extremely large simulations with an unprecedentedly high level of efficiency.

The target of the award-winning simulation, presented at SC12, was the gravitational evolution of dark matter in the early Universe. The number of dark matter particles simulated was two trillions, which is the world's largest dark matter simulation at present. The execution performance was 5.67 Pflops on the 98% resources of the K computer system.

This year, the Gordon Bell Prize was awarded singly to the Tsukuba group. A USA group achieved a 14 Pflops execution performance on Sequoia of LLNL for a similar dark matter simulation. Although the peak performance of Sequoia is twice that of K computer, the calculation speed achieved by the Tsukuba group is 2.4 times faster than that by the USA group. This is because the numerical algorithm of the Tsukuba group is more advanced than that of the USA group.(Summary from press release)

English Press Release (University of Tsukuba - Center for Computational Sciences) - new
Japanese Press Release (University of Tsukuba)
Award-recipients information on SC12 website
Abstract for the finalist presentation at SC12

*The Gordon Bell Prize is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. The purpose of the award is to track the progress over time of parallel computing, with particular emphasis on rewarding innovation in applying high-performance computing to applications in science, engineering, and large-scale data analytics. (From ACM website)