Next, a little something from the competitive world of supercomputers.
For the first time in nine years, the bragging rights to the fastest machine on the planet go to Japan.
Fugaku claimed the top spot in the biannual rankings in its debut. The results were announced on Monday.
The supercomputer was developed by the RIKEN research institute and electronics firm Fujitsu. It won four of six major categories, including speed.
It's capable of hundreds of quadrillions of operations per second – that's about three times more than the U.S. supercomputer that won last time.
The other categories Fugaku topped are performance in computational methods for industrial use, artificial intelligence applications, and big data analytics.
RIKEN officials are confident the machine can help improve society.
In fact, it's already tackling one of the most testing issues of our times.
(Matsumoto Hiroshi / President, RIKEN)
"We're using Fugaku for various simulations to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus."
◆brag 自慢する If you brag, you say in a very proud way that you have something or have done something.
◆biannual 年に２回の、半年ごとの A biannual event happens twice a year.
◆quadrillion １,０００兆 the number represented as one followed by 15 zeros (1015)
◆tackle （問題などに）取り組む If you tackle a difficult problem or task, you deal with it in a very determined or efficient way.
◆testing issue 困難な問題