China With Another New Supercomputer
China has built the world’s most powerful computer. The Sunway TaihuLight ,is able to make 93,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second. That is more than twice as fast as the Tianhe-2, a Chinese supercomputer that previously held the world record. The new computer is located at the National Supercomputing Centre in Wuxi.
In the ranking of the world’s 500 fastest computers, China has now overtaken the United States. 167 computers come from China compared to 165 in the United States. In 2006 there were only 30 Chinese computers on the world’s top list, in 2000 China did not have a single computer in the fastest 500 ranking. Other countries currently ranking on the top ten list are from Switzerland, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
The new computer runs on its own operating system, based on Linux. Among other things the Sunway TaihuLight will be used for weather forecasting, manufacturing as well as collecting and analysing large amounts of data.
For the first time China has built a computer with all its components locally manufactured. Up to now most Chinese supercomputers relied on American chip technology. The Sunway TaihuLight uses Chinese-manufactured processors.
The newly built supercomputer shows that China is willing to take on the United States in computer technology. Currently, Intel produces 96% of all computer chips worldwide.
Related Topics
- Chinese Supercomputer
- China Lands Spacecraft on the Moon
- Huawei - China's Technology Giant
- China Overtakes US Car Industry
- Scientists Come One Step Further in Creating Quantum Computers
Words
- amounts = quantities
- calculation = when you use numbers in order to find out how big or fast something is
- component = here: part of a computer
- currently = at the moment
- data = information
- locally = here: in China
- located = to be found
- manufacturing = producing goods in a factory
- operating system = a system in a computer that helps all the programs work together
- overtake = to be better than
- processor = the central part of a computer that carries out commands and processes information
- rely = depend on
- take on = here: to start competing against someone
- weather forecasting = to predict what the weather will be like
- world record = here: the fastest in the world