Cray Supercomputer Powers Japan’s Railway Technical Research Institute

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Today Cray announced that it has delivered and installed a Cray XC50 supercomputer and a ClusterStor L300 storage system at Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI), the research and development arm for Japan Railways Group. The supercomputer will be used to perform railway research in the areas of applying new technologies and materials, enhancing simulation techniques, analyzing railway-specific phenomena and improving evaluation methods.

With the Cray XC50, we have the high-performance computing power we need to drive, positive and significant research outcomes for RTRI,” said Dr. Norimichi Kumagai, president of RTRI. “In addition, we are applying our expertise to continue research in enhancing the safety and technology of railways throughout Japan. By fully utilizing this powerful system, we will be able to generate game-changing insights that will fuel one of the world’s most advanced railway systems.”

RTRI chose the Cray XC50 system for its processing capacity and for its ability to provide five times faster processing speeds, allowing researchers to run simulation programs to analyze technical issues in railways with more accuracy and provide more tangible solutions.

Cray has a longstanding and productive relationship with RTRI. In 2013, RTRI put multiple Cray supercomputers into production with the XC30 and CS300 systems, enabling the Institute to model the combined behaviors of railway system components in different fields. Today, with the installation of a Cray XC50, RTRI will analyze various phenomena related to railways.

We are proud to continue our work with RTRI, a long-standing customer in Japan, and we are pleased the Institute will continue to utilize the power of Cray supercomputers toward the development of railway technologies,” said Mamoru Nakano, president of Cray Japan. “With this latest XC50 from Cray, RTRI will be even better positioned to advance its critical research in modernizing Japan’s railway systems.”

RTRI’s XC50 system is the third Cray has delivered to RTRI since 2009. The air-cooled XC50 showcases Cray’s commitment to bringing world-class systems, software and the HPC-optimized Aries system interconnect to every data center. Paired with the higher performance storage delivery by Cray ClusterStor L300, the system is designed for balanced, sustained performance across all of RTRI’s workloads. It provides more than 800 teraflops and features five cabinets, using Intel Xeon Gold 6150 18-core (2.7 GHz) processors.

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