China builds world's fastest supercomputer
A Chinese research centre has built the world's fastest supercomputer, with almost one-and-a-half times the computing power of its nearest rival.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 5:48PM BST 29 Oct 2010
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, gives China the edge over the United States, whose fastest machine, the Jaguar, is housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The Tianhe-1A sits at the National University of Defence Technology in Tianjin. China is investing in supercomputers to improve research and to undertake the complicated and long calculations needed for climate modelling, genetic research, seismic imaging and defence.
According to Nvidia, a technology company that supplied parts for the Chinese computer, the Tianhe-1A was clocked at 2.507 petaflops, or more than two quadrillion calculations per second. It has the power of 175,000 high-end laptops. "The scientific research that is now possible with a system of this scale is almost without limits," said Liu Guangming, president of the centre in Tianjin, in a statement supplied by Nvidia. "We could not be more pleased with the results."
Having the world's fastest machine is also the source of some national pride in China. Until now, the fastest supercomputer was the Jaguar, built by Cray, and installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The Jaguar has clocked 1.75 petaflops in testing. Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who compiles the official ranking of the world's top 500 supercomputers said the next six-monthly list would likely see the Chinese machine at the top.
