Super computer

A super computer is a computer with a high-level computational capacity compared to a general-purpose computer. Although a super computer contains most of the key components of a typical computer, their performances and memory sizes are significantly different. With massive computing and data processing power, a super computer is able to operate at extremely high speeds and capacity, supported by a variety of external and peripheral equipment and diversified high-performing software systems. Generally-speaking, a super computer can perform at least 10 million calculations per second on overage. Those listed in the 2019 Top 500 ranking of super computers all have a computing capacity of more than one petaflop.

Super computers use a turbine design, where each blade is a processor that can work in conjunction. The number of processors can be increased or reduced on a needs basis. Sunway TaihuLight, China’s first super computer using indigenous processors, has a benchmark score of 93 petaflops, and a peak performance of 125 petaflops. Using advanced architecture and design, Sunway TaihuLight has realized separate storage and operation to guarantee the user data free from interruption during system updates or CPU upgrades. The home-grown super computer ensures security of data in storage, offers long, efficient and reliable calculations, and is easy to upgrade and maintain.

There are two processing approaches to the design of super computers, vector processing and massively parallel processing. The former is to develop specialized hardware to solve complex calculations, while the latter can be applied in many areas with higher flexibility. Typically, vector processing is employed in areas such as astrophysics or code interpretation, notable representatives including Deep Blue (a chess computer produced by IBM) and Earth Simulator (Japan). Non-specialized super computers serve in diversified areas such as the military, medicine, meteorology, finance, energy, environment, and manufacturing.

China is the first developing country to build a super computer. In 1983, China made its first super computer Milky Way I, as the third country in the world to design and create a super computer independently after the US and Japan. In 2010, Tianhe-I, invented by the National University of Defense Technology, topped the Top 500 rank as the world’s fastest super computer with a peak calculation speed of 1,206 teraflops. After the US, China was the second country in the world with independent capacity to make super computers of a computing speed of one petaflop. On June 20, 2016, Sunway TaihuLight, made with Chinese chips, overtook Tianhe-II as the fastest super computer in the world. It was twice as fast as Tianhe-II.

Over the last recent decade, a total of six national-level super-computing centers have been established in Tianjin, Shenzhen, Jinan, Changsha, Guangzhou, and Wuxi. Tianhe-I, Sunway Bluelight, Dawning Nebulae, Tianhe-II, and Sunway TaihuLight have all been listed in the Top 500 ranks.

In the latest edition of the Top 500 ranks released on November 18, 2019, the aggregate performance of the 500 systems continues to rise and now sits at 1.65 exaflops. The entry level to the list has risen to 1.14 petaflops, up from 1.02 petaflops in the previous list in June 2019.

China continues to claim the most super computers on the list with 228, which is almost twice of the United States as the second place, followed by Japan, France and Germany. Two US-built super computers Summit and Sierra retain the first two positions, followed by China’s Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe-II in the third and fourth places. Sunway TaihuLight was a four-time winner of the Top 500 list from 2016 to 2017, while Tianhe-II consecutively topped the list six times from 2014 to 2016.

Super computer says a lot about a nation’s comprehensive strength in information data. Considering its application in high-tech areas and frontier research, super computer is an important indicator of a nation’s technical capacity and overall strength. Also, as the big data era is approaching, super computers will have a bigger role to play in an informationalized future.

Research and development work on the next generation of exascale super computers, the Tianhe-3, is expected to be completed by around 2021. The new machines will have a calculation speed that is 200 times faster than the present models and have storage capacity that is 100 times more than the Tianhe-1. The speed is expected to hit a billion billions, or 1 followed by 18 zeros.