South Korea Unveils Hangang Supercomputer with 614.7 Petaflops and 24x Performance Boost

South Korea Launches Sixth National Supercomputer with Massive Computing Power

South Korea has officially launched the Hangang supercomputer, its sixth national supercomputer, at a ceremony attended by over 200 members from academia, research institutes, and industry at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) headquarters in Daejeon.1

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Named after the iconic Han River flowing through Seoul, the system delivers a theoretical peak performance of 614.7 petaflops, equivalent to 614.7 quadrillion calculations per second.2

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Constructed at a cost of 382.5 billion won ($276 million), this marks a significant investment in South Korea's computational infrastructure to propel cutting-edge AI research and scientific discovery.2

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24x Performance Boost Over Previous Generation

The Hangang supercomputer represents a dramatic 24x performance boost compared to Nurion, South Korea's fifth supercomputer launched in 2018.1

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Beyond raw computing speed, Hangang boasts 10 times the storage capacity and four times the network transfer performance of its predecessor.2

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The system is powered by 8,496 NVIDIA GH200 chips that integrate GPUs and CPUs, specifically including Nvidia's Grace Hopper Superchips, alongside 9,936 CPUs.1

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With storage capacity reaching 205 petabytes and transmission speeds of 400 gigabits per second, the supercomputer can perform 61.47 quadrillion calculations per second.1

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Targeting Top 10 Global Rankings

With its 614.7 petaflops of computing power, the Hangang supercomputer is expected to break into the top 10 supercomputers in the world when the TOP500 list is updated this month.1

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The system's measured performance in June reached 342.6 petaflops, securing 12th place on the TOP500 list at that time.1

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Following a pilot testing phase that began in late October, full operational service is scheduled to open on December 16.2

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This positions South Korea among global leaders in high-performance computing infrastructure.

Delayed Launch Due to GPU Market Surge

Hangang's arrival faced significant delays caused by surges in GPU prices during the recent artificial intelligence boom.1

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The project passed a feasibility study in 2022, but tenders failed as demand for GPUs skyrocketed across global markets.1

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The KISTI team had to redraw plans to meet changing research needs and possibilities, and after four years, Korea's supercomputer no. 6 is finally available for users.1

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This experience highlights the challenges nations face in securing critical computing hardware in a highly competitive market dominated by AI development.

Accelerating AI-Driven Research and National Strategic Initiatives

While Hangang continues running heavy computational simulations handled by Nurion, such as vehicle crash tests and real-time weather forecasting, it represents a major technological shift toward modern machine learning.2

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Equipped with 8,496 high-performance GPUs, the system is explicitly built to accelerate complex AI workloads.2

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The supercomputer's primary mission focuses on powering national strategic research, including the K-Moonshot initiative, a flagship Korean government program applying advanced AI models to tackle major scientific and technological challenges.2

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KISTI has allocated computing resources strategically: 55 percent for research and development, 30 percent for national strategy, and 15 percent for industrial innovation, with the latter supporting small and mid-sized companies.1

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Building on Nurion's Successful Legacy

Nurion, deployed in 2018, ranked 11th globally at launch and maintained a stellar track record over its eight-year operational lifespan.2

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The fifth supercomputer was involved in 1,730 research projects which culminated in over 1,520 publications across a wide spectrum of subject areas ranging from next-generation battery materials to building AI systems for chemical analysis using large language models.1

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Those efforts produced 70 papers published in top-tier international journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell.2

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Hangang is expected to take on not only Nurion's workload but also new GPU-powered research demands.1

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Future Integration with Quantum Computing

In early 2027, KISTI plans to connect Hangang with a quantum computer it intends to introduce, bringing hybrid research systems to South Korea.1

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This integration will create a powerful combination where the superior simultaneous computing abilities of the quantum computer will be teamed up with the large-scale and accurate computational prowess of the supercomputers.1

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A possible area of application would be drug discovery, where the quantum computer narrows down protein structures that can bind to an enzyme while the supercomputer computes their binding energies.1

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KISTI President Lee Sik stated during the ceremony, "We will do our utmost to ensure stable operations and top-tier user support, leveraging KISTI's long-standing operational experience in supercomputing."2

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While KISTI looks at innovative applications, the organization must also prepare to bring in a successor to avoid repeating previous procurement challenges and secure South Korea's computing needs in the future.1

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