The Earth Simulator and beyond - technological considerations toward the sustained PetaFlops machine

Summary form only given. Since its release in early 2002, the Earth Simulator with a 40-TFlop peak speed has demonstrated the fastest sustained performance in many applications and brought us new findings in various application areas such as the environment and nano material sciences. The system architecture and implementation of the Earth Simulator is introduced as well as application results and performance. Our target for the next generation is clearly the sustained PetaFIops machine, which is a big challenge for us. There are many technological barriers to overcome that are introduced here.