Tuesday, May 19, 2009

NEC, Hitachi Pull Out of Japan's Next-Generation Supercomputer Project

NEC, hammered by the global recession, is pulling out of a project sponsored by the Japanese government to build the fastest supercomputer in the world. NEC was working with Hitachi and Fujitsu on the project, and Hitachi reportedly pulled out just after NEC’s announcement. The move is the latest by NEC to cut expenses, following the decisions to lay off 20,000 employees and exit the North American PC business.

Struggling computing giant NEC is dropping out of a program backed by the Japanese government to build the fastest supercomputer in the world.

NEC’s announcement May 14 that it was exiting the Next-Generation Supercomputer Project to help cut costs during the global recession came two days after the company announced that it had lost more than $3 billion during its fiscal year, which ended in March.

It’s unclear what impact the defection will have on the supercomputing project.


I'd not be too hopeful for teh project's future...NEC out? Hitachi out? I'd bet that Fujitsu will follow soon enough. an interesting contrast here: a chunk of stimulus money in the US was intended to be spent on the HPC industry to try to help it through the economic nastiness. Including to develop new tech as well as keep the company's afloat.

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