The South Korean government has thrown its weight behind plans to build exascale supercomputers by 2030 and nurture local talents in the sector, the finance minister said Friday.

Exascale computing, a computer system that performs 1 quintillion operations per second, enables superspeed data analyses and simulations at that will pave the way for crucial discoveries in a wide range of fields, from finding new drugs against COVID-19 to predicting effects of climate change.

The government plans to adopt the powerful computerized processing systems in state agencies, to beef up its competitive edge in supercomputing and nurture local talent.

“The nation, currently ranked at 21st in terms of processing power, will try to make it to the top 5 list of nations with the fastest supercomputers by developing top-notch computing systems for state-run organizations,” said Hong Nam-ki, minister of economy and finance.

Hong, who made the remarks at a meeting with government officials to discuss economic challenges facing the nation, said the government will advance 24 core technologies, including central processing units and mainboard.

The minister also vowed to look into running related college programs and courses to nurture experts in the supercomputing sector by 2025.


By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)