Based in Tokyo, RTRI places great importance on the application of supercomputer-based simulation technology in its R&D efforts. With the goal of driving computing simulations in parallel environments, RTRI is now tapping into the technical expertise offered by Cray to set up a large-scale, efficient computing environment.

"We conducted a series of reviews aimed at selecting a system that would allow us to continue to use the application assets that we have been using to date, and these reviews confirmed that the Cray XT4 delivers superior performance", stated Norimichi Kumagi, RTRI's executive director responsible for the information management division. "We intend to make the Cray XT4 our main system so we can effectively promote advanced simulations for railway R&D. We wish to make the best use of the system to conduct daily R&D activities by capitalizing on Cray's support."

The Cray products now operating at RTRI are a three-cabinet Cray XT4 supercomputer that serves as the institute's main system and a Cray CX1 deskside supercomputer that functions as the application server. This system delivers a combined peak performance of 10.8 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second), which is 16 times faster than the institute's previous system. The panels on the Cray XT4 feature a custom illustration evoking the promising future of railway technology. The illustration is rendered in purple, the colour of RTRI's company logo.

"We are excited to see commercial customers such as RTRI leveraging the computational power of Cray XT systems in addition to our customers in the government and academic sectors", stated Mamoru Nakano, president of Cray Japan. "Cray plans to actively assist RTRI in the area of programming to facilitate their computing simulations. In this way, we are sure they will be able to steadily promote programme sharing, and as a result RTRI will further realize much faster and more precise simulations."