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Technical Computing


FSTJ 2014-7 Cover Image

2014-7 (Vol.50, No.3)

In this special issue, we present recent research achievements of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) obtained using the K computer and a variety of case studies in technical computing solutions provided by Fujitsu:

  • Overseas social infrastructure systems contributing to meteorological services, emergency management, and environmental protection
  • Overseas projects using advanced research and simulation skills in astronomy, computational science, and other fields
  • Domestic social systems and projects using advanced research and simulation skills.


Feature Papers

1. Preface (465 KB)
It's been five years since our last special issue on technical computing solutions. In the interim, the K computer, jointly developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu in 2011, became the world's fastest supercomputer and made supercomputers a popular topic of conversation. Since then, a new term, "technical computing," has been gradually becoming familiar to many people. I am convinced that technical computing will experience global expansion and become increasingly important. In this special issue, we present recent research achievements obtained using the K computer and a variety of case studies in technical computing solutions provided by Fujitsu. Fujitsu is vigorously pursuing scientific and technical computing not only to provide the latest solutions, but also to create new values that will contribute to our everyday lives. ---[Masahiko Yamada, Head of Technical Computing Solutions Unit]

Special Contribution

2. Studies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters Using the K computer (1,005 KB)
Japan has been hit almost every year in recent years by serious natural disasters. To prevent and mitigate the damage, it is imperative to take effective measures quickly. The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) has embarked on "Strategic Programs for Innovative Research: Advanced Prediction Researches for Natural Disaster Prevention and Reduction (Field 3)," in collaboration with universities and research bodies in Japan. In the Field 3 studies, large-scale natural disaster simulations on the K computer have been conducted. We have already obtained good results such as acquiring an ability to precisely forecast Madden-Julian oscillation, obtaining high-precision tornado simulation results, carrying out advanced simulations on seismic motion, conducting high-resolution tsunami simulations related to a Nankai Trough quake, carrying out high-resolution seismic response analysis, and conducting multi-agent simulations for evacuation actions. ---[Hitoshi Uehara, Kazuto Ando]

Overseas Social Systems

3. MEMS Project in Saudi Arabia: Global Solution Business Initiative (1.13 MB )
The MODON Environment Management System (MEMS) project started with a feasibility study on eco-industrial cities as part of the "Fiscal Year 2011 Project Commissioned to Research and Promote Infrastructure-related System Export (Business Feasibility Study on Smart Communities in the Global Market)" sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). This led to Fujitsu being awarded a contract to construct ambient air, emission air, and ambient, industrial water, and wastewater systems in three major industrial cities covered by MODON, which means "cities" in Arabic. This construction was carried out in collaboration with Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., METAWATER Co., Ltd., Eco Analysis Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., and experts in many different fields from academia and Kawasaki City. This paper describes how Fujitsu obtained the contract and carried out the project and gives an overview of the system, current project status, and future vision. ---[Naoki Shiraishi, Norio Yabe]
4. Environmental Monitoring System for Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Thailand (1.05 MB )
Fujitsu has installed a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) monitoring and environmental information management system (VM-EIMS) for the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. The system is intended to improve air quality in Map Ta Phut. It monitors 19 kinds of VOCs, 10 odor-causing compounds, and ozone. We improved the analysis function and the information publishing function of the system by introducing technological concepts such as "risk assessment" and "risk communication" for environmental risk management. The system can carry out advanced simulations for use in predicting the diffusion of air pollutants. In addition to installing the system, we conducted such technology transfer activities as holding technical training sessions to develop the environmental simulation skills of Thai researchers. The system can publish information on air quality (both measured and simulated) on the Web and receive information about the state of pollution in various areas from local residents. This paper describes Fujitsu's efforts and achievements related to this system. ---[Tomomi Suzuki, Shusaku Akari, Kotaro Teranishi, Satoshi Fujii]
5. Satellite-based Disaster Management System for Asia-Pacific Region (794 KB)
In 2005, a disaster management support system for Asia was proposed at the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF). This led to the Sentinel Asia project with participants (at the time) from 23 agencies in 14 countries and 4 international organizations. The aim was to reduce the number of victims and economic loss caused by natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is contributing to this effort by playing an active role as the Sentinel Asia Secretariat. The Satellite-based Disaster Management System for the Asia-Pacific Region, the "Sentinel Asia STEP 2 System," provides disaster response agencies in disaster-affected countries with relevant information, including data reflecting conditions on the ground, obtained by earth observation satellites. It supports the monitoring of disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region by ICT. Fujitsu began developing this system in 2008, and it has been in operation since March 31, 2010. This article presents an overview of the technologies provided by Fujitsu and example results of its use in response to natural disasters. ---[Toshiaki Ariyama, Yu Saito]
6. Supercomputer System for Numerical Weather Prediction by Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (708 KB)
The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (CWB) is responsible for forecasting and monitoring weather across Taiwan and for detecting earthquakes and tsunamis. Its numerical weather prediction system is being upgraded in three phases to use Fujitsu's new supercomputer system centered about FUJITSU Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX10. The sale of the FX10 supercomputer in the first phase to the CWB was the first overseas shipment of this system, which was developed on the basis of the technology used in the K computer. ---[Fumihiro Takehara, Hidenori Hayashi, Junichi Fujita]

Overseas Projects Using Advanced Research and Simulation Skills

7. ACA Correlator System: Supercomputer System Developed for ALMA Project (689 KB)
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) is jointly promoting with U.S. and European observatories the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Project. The Fujitsu Group developed a supercomputer, the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) correlator system, dedicated to processing data from large radio telescopes. This system consists of a correlator control system comprising 35 FUJITSU PRIMERGY PC servers and the ACA correlator developed by Fujitsu Advanced Engineering. The system meets stringent requirements including the need to process in real time huge amounts of radio signal data (512 billion pieces/s) collected by telescope antennas at a calculation speed of 120 tera-operations per second and to operate stably in an extreme environment (a plateau near the Atacama Desert in Chile at an altitude of 5000 m with an atmospheric pressure of 0.5 atm). It uses cost-efficient field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology and a disk-less system to achieve reliable operation. Lengthy testing in a low pressure environment demonstrated that the system can operate in such an environment for a long period of time and that it can be maintained remotely. Test operation began in 2011 and, after this pilot operation proved that the system is suitable for use in the ALMA Project, it was put into regular use in 2013. This paper describes the entire concept of the ACA correlator system and the approaches taken to realizing its high computing performance and reliable operation. ---[Katsumi Abe, Junpei Tsutsumi, Takahiro Hiyama]
8. Approach to Utilizing High-performance Computing at HPC Wales (600 KB)
HPC Wales has been providing high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure to enterprises and universities in target domains for future business development, research innovation and nurturing of human resources. This project is carried out by HPC Wales in collaboration with the UK government, Welsh government, EU and Fujitsu. In particular, Fujitsu has provided HPC system infrastructure, transferred knowledge and collaborated in research with HPC Wales. In this paper, we describe the HPC infrastructure in HPC Wales and its approach to utilizing HPC technology for business development. ---[Hideaki Kuraishi, Masaki Iwatani, Akira Mantani, Motohiro Yamada]
9. Applications of Molecular Simulation Software SCIGRESS in Industry and University (612 KB)
SCIGRESS is computer simulation software developed by Fujitsu that is capable of simulating the behavior of atoms and molecules. The drug design phase in the pharmaceutical industry requires experiments to verify the effectiveness of a design; however, it takes considerable time and costs if all the required experiments are performed without computer simulation. SCIGRESS can perform virtual experiments on a computer to help practical experiments, resulting in time and cost savings. SCIGRESS is often used for education in teaching organic chemistry in universities. In particular, students tend to misunderstand what the resonance of aromatic compounds actually means when they only listen to lectures and read textbooks. SCIGRESS can visualize aromatic compounds with 3D graphics and help people to have a correct understanding. This paper describes two applications of SCIGRESS for drug degradation prediction by Sanofi S.A. in France, a major pharmaceutical company in the world, and for teaching organic chemistry in Ulm University, a public university in Germany. ---[Nicolas Marchand, Philippe Lienard, Hans-Ullrich Siehl, Harunobu Izato]

Domestic Social Systems

10. Building of System to Monitor Environmental Radioactivity Level (960 KB)
The Japanese government required a system to monitor the environmental radioactivity level and protect the children living in Fukushima from radiation, and requested it in the second supplementary budget for 2012. Fujitsu accepted an order for this system from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in December 2011. This system was transferred to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in April 2013. We finished building this system in 75 days, and started running it partially in mid-February 2012, and completely in April 2012. Now, we are keeping the system running stably. We received the Good Design Award for it. In this paper, we describe the problems (short development period, suitable Web design, maintaining system response) we faced in developing this system. We also describe how we solved them by using cloud services, dividing up parts of the system for data processing, using Web designer and open source software (OSS), and using the Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript + XML) method. ---[Satoshi Kitadate, Junichi Hasunuma, Tomoaki Sato, Mitsuteru Ishida]

Domestic Projects Using Advanced Research and Simulation Skills

11. Practical Use of FX10 Supercomputer System (Oakleaf-FX) of Information Technology Center, The University of Tokyo (933 KB)
Information Technology Center, The University of Tokyo (ITC/UT) is a core organization of "Joint Usage/Research Center for Interdisciplinary Large-Scale Information Infrastructures" which consists of eight academic supercomputer centers in Japan. There, Oakleaf-FX, a system centered on Fujitsu's PRIMEHPC FX10 (76 800 CPU cores), which has been developed by further enhancing the technology applied to the K computer to realize both high performance and superior energy efficiency, started operations in April 2012 and achieved a performance of 1.04 PFLOPS (ranked 18th in the world) in June 2012. Supercomputing Division of ITC/UT provides services for operations of supercomputer systems and supports more than 1500 users from both inside and outside the university in various cutting-edge R&D and education activities. Fujitsu is working to develop products with high application execution performance, and create user-friendly systems that can work in various operational environments and that are energy efficient. This paper presents a system overview of Oakleaf-FX and the issues to be overcome to develop supercomputers, together with measures for solving them. The results of various studies making use of Oakleaf-FX have been reported and this paper also touches on four fields as successful examples of its application. ---[Yoshio Sakaguchi, Takahiro Ogura]
12. Takeda Pharmaceutical's E-Notebook Project Report (698 KB)
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited faces three problems: controlling cost and time in activities to discover drugs, finding a solution to patent disputes, and helping Fujitsu's customers to observe compliance. To solve these problems, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Fujitsu Limited cooperated to establish E-Notebook and its related effective systems, which are a long-term signature system, a system to check regulatory controls on chemical compounds and a chemical compound database system. These can be used to thoroughly computerize information on drug discovery. As a result, we have improved systems to input and record data in compound synthesis studies, helped organizations observe compliance by protecting against synthesis of illegal chemical compounds and made it possible to establish evidence on the date of a drug's discovery with an electronic certificate. We have improved the quality of customers' drug discovery activities by realizing measures to resolve patent disputes, helping them observe compliance and improving the operations of customers' researchers. ---[Akihiko Harada, Toshihiko Kuboki, Minoru Hagiwara]
13. Application Examples of Electromagnetic Wave Simulation Software "Poynting" in Manufacturing Industry (1.06 MB )
It is becoming hard to produce designs when developing electronic equipment because of advances in packaging technology and strict regulations. It is specifically difficult to conform to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards in the design phase. And this is a factor that causes development costs to increase. By implementing a simulation for virtual evaluation in the design phase of a printed circuit board (PCB), it becomes possible to significantly reduce the cost of measurement and evaluation. EMC measures in the design phase can be implemented by performing electromagnetic wave analysis of the whole model of a product comprised of a PCB, wiring and housing. To meet this need, Fujitsu has developed the electromagnetic wave simulation software "Poynting," that it markets and supports. Poynting is capable of rapidly carrying out calculations in a large-scale model with a high-performance computer system. It is suitable for analyzing noise in electronic equipment. This paper describes the features and advantages of Poynting. It also describes application examples of carrying out electromagnetic interference (EMI) analysis on power electronics equipment, near-field electromagnetic analysis of a PCB and electrostatic discharge (ESD) analysis of a cellular phone. ---[Wataru Odajima, Yoichi Kochibe, Yasuhiro Oda, Kazuhiro Fujita]