South Korea launches Hangang, a massive new national supercomputer

South Korea has launched its sixth national supercomputer, named Hangang, built with nearly 8,500 Nvidia GPUs and a peak computing performance of 614.7 petaflops. Named after the Han River in Seoul, the system cost 382.5 billion won, which is about $276 million, and was developed by the Ministry of Science and ICT along with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, or KISTI.

Launch and Details

The launch ceremony took place on Monday at the KISTI headquarters in Daejeon, located about 140 kilometers south of Seoul. Nearly 200 people from industry, universities, and government research bodies attended the event. Hangang replaces Nurion, the country's fifth-generation supercomputer deployed back in 2018. The new system features 8,496 graphics processing units, including Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips, and 9,936 central processing units.

Power and Uses

Hangang can perform 614.7 quadrillion calculations per second, giving it 24 times the power of Nurion. It also offers 10 times the storage capacity and four times the network transfer performance of its predecessor. The machine is designed to handle modern machine learning alongside traditional tasks like weather forecasting and vehicle crash simulations. Pilot testing began in late October, and full operations start on December 16. KISTI President Lee Sik stated at the event that the institute will ensure stable functioning and strong technical support.

Context

Supercomputers like Hangang provide massive computational power far beyond ordinary computers, enabling researchers to process huge datasets in hours rather than years. Governments worldwide invest in such high-performance systems to maintain leadership in artificial intelligence and advanced scientific fields. This upgrade helps South Korea support major state-backed research projects and aims to place the country among the top global computing powers.