NEC today announced the worldwide launch and availability of the SX series model "SX-9," the world's fastest vector supercomputer with a peak processing performance of 839 TFLOPS. The SX-9 features the world's first CPU capable of a peak vector performance of 102.4 GFLOPS per single core. In addition to the newly developed CPU, the NEC SX-9 combine’s large-scale shared memory of up to 1TB and ultra high-speed interconnects achieving speeds up to 128GB/second. Through these enhanced features, the SX-9 closes in on the PFLOPS range by realizing a processing performance of 839 TFLOPS. The NEC SX-9 also achieves an approximate three-quarter reduction in space and power consumption over conventional models. This was achieved by applying advanced LSI design and high-density packaging technology.

In comparison to scalar servers incorporating multiple general-purpose CPUs, the vector supercomputer offers superior operating performance for high-speed scientific computation and ultra high-speed processing of large-volume data. The enhanced effectiveness of NEC SX-9 will be clearly demonstrated in fields such as weather forecasting, fluid dynamics and environmental simulation, as well as simulations for as-yet-unknown materials in nanotechnology and polymeric design.