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RT
November 21, 2013
China’s showpiece Tianhe-2 computer is almost twice as fast as its nearest rival, according to a new ranking. But the simple benchmark used to rate the powerful “research and education tool” may not effectively measure the supercomputer’s true usefulness.
Tianhe-2, which means ‘Milkyway 2,’ runs at 33.86 petaflops. This is equivalent to 33,863 trillion calculations per second. The device, which uses US-designed Intel microchips, was turned on earlier this year and is being run by Guangzhou’s city government.
The internationally recognized Top500 ranking, which is twice-yearly compiled by scientists at the University of Mannheim, gives computers a specific type of mathematical equation which allows for direct comparison, known as the ‘Linpack benchmark.’
China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) says that Tianhe-2 was developed for government security applications, various simulations, and analysis. Packed with 16,000 computer nodes, it has 3,120,000 cores. The total CPU plus coprocessor memory is 1,375 terabytes.
The interconnect system, operating system, front-end processors, and software were all developed by Chinese scientists. The system is the most energy-efficient configuration in the top 10, with 2.33 megawatts consumption of power that delivers 2.7 Gigaflops-per-watt of performance.
“The major challenge is for China to develop the computing chip technology so it can build the whole computer with Chinese parts. Application software also presents a great challenge,” Jack Dongarra, professor at the University of Tennessee and Top500 editor, told Xinhua.
Tianhe-2, to be officially launched at the end of this year, is designed as a “research and education” tool. It can be used in a variety of China’s commercial industries and in a number of research fields that need to process a lot of raw data, such as physics.
The $390 million mega-system can multitask and is able to operate traffic lights, predict earthquakes, be used in pharmaceutical and car industries, and create movie special effects, Xinhua reports.
