Since its previous incarnation as the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan and the National Space Development Agency of Japan, JAXA has played a leading role in the development of cutting edge aerospace technology through the effective use of supercomputers in the research and development of numerical simulations for space exploration, aeronautical systems and related technologies. It also applies supercomputer resources to human resource training.

JAXA plans to use the new NEC-delivered system to simulate space environments not readily reproduced in ground experiments, and for endurance testing and evaluations on spacecraft. The principle activities of the system will include numerical simulations on space craft engines, including complex flow field analysis on the inside of rocket engines, as well as plasma simulations deemed an invaluable resource for the building of spacecraft systems for interplanetary exploration.

"Vector supercomputers, with their ability to process complex and large-scale calculations at high speed, are perfectly suited to the large-scale fluid dynamics simulations undertaken in the field of space and aeronautical development", stated Dr. Kozo Fujii, Director of JAXA's Engineering Digital Innovation (JEDI) Center. "The SX-9 offers outstanding effective performance and large-scale shared-memory, and we anticipate that the new system will answer JAXA's needs for increased vector computing capabilities."

The SX-9, the newest model of NEC's SX series of supercomputers, was launched worldwide on October 25, 2007. Boasting a peak vector performance of 839 TFLOPS, the SX-9 is the world's fastest vector supercomputer and is equipped with the world's first CPU capable of a peak vector performance in excess of 100 GFLOPS per single core.

NEC will continue to develop vector supercomputer technology to contribute to research and development activities in the aerospace field. In particular, NEC will focus on improving computing accuracy and reducing computing times to reverse the current shortfall in computing resources resulting from a growing demand for numerical simulations.