Next month marks a major milestone for South Korea’s technological infrastructure with the official rollout of "Hangang," the country’s sixth-generation national supercomputer. Moving away from traditional CPU-only architectures, this latest system features massive GPU integration, positioning the nation for a leap forward in AI-driven scientific breakthroughs.

Operated by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) in Daejeon under the Ministry of Science and ICT, Hangang is currently in its test-run phase and will open for official public service on November 14.

Supercomputers serve as critical computational backbones for processing massive datasets at lightning speeds. Since acquiring its first system in 1988, the South Korean government has consistently updated these resources to bridge the gap for researchers who lack access to high-end infrastructure. Previous systems have powered vital R&D efforts, from automotive crash testing and climate change modeling to liquid rocket propulsion design and next-gen battery engineering.

Hangang stands apart from previous national models by prioritizing deep-learning capabilities. Alongside 9,936 CPUs, the supercomputer packs 8,496 state-of-the-art GPUs, including NVIDIA’s GH-200 integrated accelerator chips.

The performance leap from the previous system, "Nurion" (active since 2018), is dramatic. Hangang delivers 24 times the theoretical computing speed, 10 times the data storage capacity, and 4 times the network throughput of its predecessor. Nurion previously left a strong legacy, supporting 1,730 research projects and helping publish over 1,500 SCI-level papers while ranking 11th globally at its launch.

By combining traditional simulation models with heavy GPU-accelerated AI infrastructure, Hangang will power high-stakes national strategies—such as the K-Moonshot initiative—as well as academic breakthroughs and industrial R&D. Ministry officials expect the system to secure a spot in the global top 10 rankings at the upcoming SC2026 conference in the United States.

KISTI leadership emphasized that the institution's decades of operational expertise will be fully leveraged to ensure researchers maximize Hangang's vast capabilities.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]