Riken, a Japanese state-backed research institute ,will develop a next-generation supercomputer to succeed the formerly world-leading "K" at its base in the western Japanese city of Kobe, Kyodo News reported Friday.

The new supercomputer, which is expected to be capable of performing 1 quintillion computations per second, will have 100 times more computing capacity than the K supercomputer, which was jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu Ltd. and became fully operational in 2012, the report said.

Riken will take the lead in the development of the new

supercomputer, which will be placed next to the K supercomputer at Kobe's Port Island, where a number of facilities linked to the project are located.

The project will cost some 140 billion yen (about 1.4 billion U. S.dollars) and the new supercomputer is expected to go operational around 2020, according to the report.