Satoshi Matsuoka
An eminent figure in the HPC community, Prof. Satoshi Matsuoka, director of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) and professor of computer science at Tokyo Institute of Technology, joined our @HPCpodcast for a far ranging discussion of supercomputing – past, present and future.
At RIKEN, Matsuoka has overseen development of Fugaku, number 1 on the TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers (the list will be updated next week during the ISC 2022 conference in Hamburg — as of now it’s not known if Fugaku will retain its position). Previously, Matsuoka was lead developer of another well-know supercomputer, TSUBAMI, the most powerful supercomputer in Japan at the time.
He also is a recent winner of the Purple Ribbon Medal, one of Japan’s highest honors, and in our conversation Matsuoka explains why the award ceremony did not include the usual presence of the Emperor of Japan. That’s how our discussion starts; other topics are time stamped below:
start The Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor
2:15 The role of Japan in supercomputing
3:45 TOP500 and ORNL’s Exascale system
5:00 Fugaku and Arm
8:00 Why not SPARC
11:30 The balance and beauty of Fugaku and its predecessor, the K-Computer
15:15 Notable applications of Fugaku, including Covid research
25:00 Future of supercomputing and what’s next after Fugaku
31:45 FPGA and CGRA
36:00 Quantum Computing
40:30 Nintendo days and working with the late, great Satoru Iwata
48:30 Pursuit of perfection, with a mention of the movie “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
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