A Chinese supercomputer has been declared the fastest in the world, a title which the nation has held for the past seven years. This is the first year the computer has been made entirely of Chinese-designed processors instead of US technology, however.
This year China also surpassed the US as the country with the most supercomputers in the TOP500 ranking. China had 167 systems to the US’ 165, and Japan trailed in third place with 29 systems.
Such developments suggest that US dominance of the supercomputer field is dwindling.
“Considering that just 10 years ago China claimed a mere 28 systems on the list, with none ranked in the top 30, the nation has come further and faster than any other country in the history of supercomputing,” said TOP500 organisers.
China’s winning computer is the Sunway TaihuLight at the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi. It was developed by China’s National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology.
The computer is capable of 93 petaflops and is intended for use in engineering and research including climate, weather, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and data analytics.
Image source: Report on the Sunway TaihuLight System