The supercomputer Forerunner 1 (創進一號) has officially been launched for deployment in fields that require high-performance computing, including weather forecasts, astrophysics simulations, and engineering design and simulations, the National Center for High-Performance Computing said yesterday.
The center last year began building the next-generation supercomputer at its office in Tainan to replace the Taiwania 1 (台灣杉一號), which has been retired.
Forerunner 1 features 62,496 computing cores, with an overall performance capacity of up to 3.5 petaflops and 9.2 petabytes of storage, the center said.
Photo courtesy of the National Center for High-Performance Computing
For the first time, 40 ARM architecture computing nodes have been installed in the new supercomputer, allowing users to conduct preliminary heterogeneous architecture testing as a reference for the center when it builds new supercomputers in the future, it said.
The center has built supercomputers of different architectures to cope with large-scale scientific and artificial intelligence (AI) projects, it said.
The CPU-based Forerunner 1 is suitable for various high-performance computing tasks, including weather forecasts, astrophysics simulations, molecular model simulations, and engineering design and simulation.
Taiwania 1 was built in 2017 with a performance capacity of 1.7 petaflops, center director-general Chang Chau-lyan (張朝亮) said in a statement.
“With the rapid development of global high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, the improvement of computing power is directly related to the nation’s technological competitiveness,” Chang said.
“The center will gradually establish more powerful computing infrastructure,” he said.
The center is scheduled to complete the construction of 16 petaflops of graphics processing unit-based computing power by the end of this year to meet the needs of AI-related research and application, such as large language models, Chang said.
“We are also aiming to upgrade our computing power to 200 to 300 petaflops by 2028 to further enhance Taiwan’s competitiveness in global technology research and development,” he said.
During the pilot test, Forerunner 1 demonstrated excellent performance in many fields, including astrophysics, fluid mechanics, atmospheric science, high-energy physics and materials computing, the center said.
With the use of Forerunner 1, Academia Sinica’s astrophysics research has increased its computing speed by 5.3 times, while National Chung Hsing University and National Cheng Kung University have significantly increased the scale of fluid dynamics calculations and simulations, reducing the calculation time for billion-level ultra-fine grids from several months to 40 hours, the center said.
The next-generation supercomputer has helped elevate National Taiwan University’s air-sea coupling model test efficiency, which was 80 percent higher than that conducted by Taiwania 3, the center said.
Research on quantum chemistry and materials calculations has also been significantly accelerated, it said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS