The People's Republic of China operates a number of supercomputer centers which have held world records in speed.[1]
The origins of these centers go back to 1989, when the State Planning Commission, the State Science and Technology Commission and the World Bank jointly launched a project to develop networking and supercomputer facilities in China. In addition to network facilities, the project included three supercomputer centers.[2] According to professor Jack Dongarra, the Chinese are making a deep commitment to supercomputing.[1]
Contents |
| Country | Top speed (Tflops) |
Number of computers in TOP500 |
|---|---|---|
| China | 2566 | 61 |
| France | 1050 | 25 |
| Germany | 826 | 30 |
| Japan | 8162 | 26 |
| Russia | 350 | 12 |
| South Korea | 316 | 4 |
| United Kingdom | 275 | 27 |
| United States | 1759 | 255 |
The progress of supercomputing in China in the early part of the 21st century has been dramatic, in that it placed 51st in June 2003, then 14th in November 2003 and 10th in June 2004 and then 5th during 2005.[4] By mid-2010 it had reached the 2nd spot and at the end of 2010 the top spot.
To date, Chinese supercomputers have used "off the shelf" processors, e.g. Tianhe-1 uses thousands of Intel and Nvidia chips, and uses the Linux operating system which is open source software. However, to avoid possible future technology embargo restrictions, the Chinese are developing their own processors such as the Loongson, a MIPS type processor.[4][1]
According to the MIT Technology Review, the Loongson processor will power the Dawning supercomputers by 2012, producing a line of totally Chinese made supercomputers that reach petaflop speeds.[5]
The National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin is one of the main centers. It houses the Tianhe-I supercomputer which in October 2010 became the top speed record holder in the world by consistently operating at 2.507 petaflops. The Tianjin Computer Institute had been active as far back as 1984 when it developed the 16-bit TQ-0671 microcomputer system.[6] A commercial affiliate of the Tianjin center had previously made the PHPC100 personal supercomputer in 2008 which was about twice the size of a normal desktop computer, but had 40 times the speed. In 2010 a second generation model was released.[7]
The Supercomputing Center of the China Academy of Sciences (SCCAS) provides academic support functions to the National Centers.[8]
The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen houses the second fastest machine in China, and the third fastest in the world.[9] In May 2010 the Nebulae computer in Shenzhen placed second on the Top 500 supercomputer list, after the Cray computer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.[10]
The Shanghai Supercomputer Center operates the Magic Cube supercomputer that runs at 230 teraflops, significantly below the Tianhe-I speed.[11][12]
Foundations for a new major branch of the National Supercomputing Center (国家超级计算中心 Guójiā Chāojíjìsuàn Zhōngxīn) were laid in Changsha on 28 November 2010.[13]