Fujitsu has developed the world's fastest central processing unit--a CPU capable of performing 128 billion calculations per second, the company announced Tuesday.
The prototype with the code name 'Venus' (SPARC64 VIIIfx) has been manufactured using the 45nm technology and it is able to compute at 128 billion times per second (128GFLOPs), which is 2.5 times faster than the current record holder, a CPU made by Intel. The new CPU is also 3 times faster than the company's previous performance CPU, - the SPARC64 VII (quad-core, 65nm) - shipped in 2008.
Fujitsu achieved the rapid speed by using miniaturization technology to double the number of cores integrated onto a chip--measuring about 2 centimeters square--from four to eight. The CPU has also memory on board.
The Venus' design also is energy efficient--cutting electricity consumption to about one-third of current levels.
The Venus CPU is expected to power supercomputers in the following years, according to Fujitsu. The company showcased a system that can be equipped with four 'Venus' chips, offering a 521GFLOPs of computing power.