AKIPRESS.COM - Japan's new Fugaku supercomputer, which has this week been declared the most powerful in the world, is to be used to search for a potential cure for the coronavirus, SKy News reports.

Based at the Japanese government's RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Fugaku is the country's first machine to lead the biannual TOP500 supercomputer list since 2011.

It is potentially capable of performing up to 513 quadrillion mathematical operations every second, crunching through complicated simulations regarding the coronavirus and potential treatments.

"I hope that the cutting-edge IT developed for Fugaku will contribute to major advances on difficult social challenges such as COVID-19," said Satoshi Matsuoka, the head of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science.

The TOP500 list is compiled by academics in the US and Germany - and includes machines whose owners have decided to submit them for appraisal, although some supercomputers may be withheld from the list for secrecy.

However, it is unlikely that anything outside an immensely secretive military installation could surpass the supercomputers on the top of the list due to the power costs of running these machines.