Supercomputing in China

Supercomputing in China
Proportion of supercomputers by country, June 2010

The People's Republic of China operates a number of supercomputer centers which hold 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

Progress

Comparison (June 2011)[3]
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]

Supercomputing centers

Tianjin

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]

Beijing

The Supercomputing Center of the China Academy of Sciences (SCCAS) provides academic support functions to the National Centers.[8]

Shenzhen

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]

Shanghai

The Shanghai Supercomputer Center operates the Magic Cube supercomputer that runs at 230 teraflops, significantly below the Tianhe-I speed.[11][12]

Changsha

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]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c New York Times
  2. ^ Xing Fan (2001). Communications and information in China. pp. 39–42, 90. ISBN 0761819509. 
  3. ^ "TOP500 List - June 2011". TOP500. http://top500.org/list/2011/06/100. Retrieved 2011-06-22. 
  4. ^ a b Graham, Susan L.; Snir, Marc; Patterson, Cynthia A. (2005). Getting up to speed: the future of supercomputing. p. 188. ISBN 0309095026. 
  5. ^ MIT Technology Review Oct 21, 2010
  6. ^ United States Committee on Science and Technology (July 1987). Technology transfer to China. p. 96. ISBN 0087619823. 
  7. ^ Financial Technology Spotlight, April 2010
  8. ^ Chinese website 中国科学院计算机网络信息中心超级计算中心
  9. ^ The Guardian October 28, 2010
  10. ^ BBC News. May 31, 2010
  11. ^ Top 500
  12. ^ Xinhua June 15 2009
  13. ^ Article 29 Nov. 2010 国家超级计算中心落户长沙

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • China Meteorological Administration — 中国气象局 Zhōngguó Qìxiàng Jú Agency overview Formed 1949 Superseding agency Central Military Commission Meteorological Bureau Central Weather Bureau Jurisdiction …   Wikipedia

  • China — This article is about the People s Republic of China. For the state commonly known as Taiwan, see the Republic of China. For other uses, see China (disambiguation). PRC redirects here. For other uses, see PRC (disambiguation). People …   Wikipedia

  • Media history of China — History of China ANCIENT …   Wikipedia

  • National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin — The National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin (Chinese: 国家超级计算天津中心; pinyin: guójiā chāojí jìsuàn zhōngxīn) is located at the National Defense Science and Technology University in Tianjin, China. The currently the second fastest supercomputer in… …   Wikipedia

  • National Supercomputing Center (Shenzhen) — The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen houses the second fastest machine in China, and the third fastest in the world.[1] In May 2010 the Nebulae computer in Shenzhen placed second on the Top 500 supercomputer list, after the Cray… …   Wikipedia

  • Dawning Information Industry — (Shuguang, 曙光) is a supercomputer manufacturer in the People s Republic of China. Its Dawning 4000A and Dawning 5000A clusters were both ranked tenth in June 2004 and November 2008 TOP500 lists respectively. Dawning has manufactured some of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Loongson — logo Designed by Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), Chinese Academy of Sciences Common manufacturer(s) STMicroelectronics …   Wikipedia

  • Tianjin — 天津   Municipality   Municipality of Tianjin • 天津市 …   Wikipedia

  • FLOPS — Computer performance Name FLOPS yottaFLOPS 1024 zettaFLOPS 1021 exaFLOPS 1018 petaFLOPS 1015 teraFLOPS 1012 gigaFLOPS 109 megaFLOPS 106 kiloFLOPS …   Wikipedia

  • History of the Internet — Main article: Internet The history of the Internet starts in the 1950s and 1960s with the development of computers. This began with point to point communication between mainframe computers and terminals, expanded to point to point connections… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”