Next Frontier of Supercomputer: China's Exascale in the Making

[ahojunk]

China developing fastest supercomputer again
2016-11-03 08:55 | Xinhua | Editor: Mo Hong'e

China has started to build a prototype supercomputer system with an estimated peak performance of over 1,000 quadrillion calculations per second, ten times that of the current fastest computer, researchers said Wednesday.

The exascale supercomputer is being developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) and will be installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan.

The project follows the announcement of China's independently developed Sunway Taihulight as the world's fastest supercomputer in June at the 2016 International Supercomputing Conference in Germany.

Challenges and uncertainties accompany the project, said Yang Meihong, director of the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan. "It is a test for the effectiveness of China's independently developed technologies," Yang said.

China has launched three projects for developing exascale supercomputers, led respectively by the NRCPC, National University of Defense Technology and Sugon Information Industry, Yang said.

Supercomputers can support various tasks, including oil exploration, high-end equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and animation design.

According to the International Supercomputing Conference, China has 167 of the world's top 500 supercomputers.

 

[cirr]

China plans to develop powerful exascale computer

Source: Xinhua

2017-01-17 16:03:12

TIANJIN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- China is planning to develop a prototype of an exascale computer, considered the next frontier of supercomputers, by the end of 2017, according to a developer Tuesday.

"A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country's first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognized as the world's fastest in 2010," said Zhang Ting, application engineer with the Tianjin-based National Supercomputer Center, when attending the sixth session of the 16th Tianjin Municipal People's Congress Tuesday.

Exascale computers are capable of at least 1 quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Zhang said that using the exascale computer for cloud computing and big data applications, China could spur ahead with many key innovation and high-tech programs.

In June 2016, China revealed its fastest new supercomputer -- the Sunway TaihuLight -- with a peak performance of 124.5 petaflops, the world's first system to exceed 100 petaflops.

China has been steadily building its supercomputing capacity, and independently developed all key technology including microprocessors.

Zhang said the next-generation exascale computer will not only lead in calculation speed, but also in data transmission efficiency.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-01/17/c_135990226.htm

 

[TaiShang]

Quintillion calculator is China's big weapon
Shanghai Daily, January 18, 2017

China plans to develop a prototype "exascale" computer before 2018, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second.

Quintillion calculator is China's big weapon

If successful, the achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing.

Last June, China built the world's fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine — twice as fast as the previous number one.

Sunway used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology.

Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least 1 quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Though a prototype was in the pipeline, a complete version of such a machine would take a few more years to complete. Xinhua news agency yesterday cited Zhang Ting, application engineer at the National Supercomputer Center in the port city of Tianjin, as saying "a complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020." It would be 200 times more powerful than the country's first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognized as the world's fastest in 2010, said Zhang.

The exascale computer could have applications in big data and cloud computing work, he added, noting that its prototype would lead the world in data transmission efficiency as well as calculation speed.

As of last June, China for the first time had more top-ranked supercomputers than the US, according to a survey by supercomputer tracking website Top500.org.

 

[cirr]

Quintillion calculator is China's big weapon
Shanghai Daily, January 18, 2017

China plans to develop a prototype "exascale" computer before 2018, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second.

Quintillion calculator is China's big weapon

If successful, the achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing.

Last June, China built the world's fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine — twice as fast as the previous number one.

Sunway used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology.

Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least 1 quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Though a prototype was in the pipeline, a complete version of such a machine would take a few more years to complete. Xinhua news agency yesterday cited Zhang Ting, application engineer at the National Supercomputer Center in the port city of Tianjin, as saying "a complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020." It would be 200 times more powerful than the country's first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognized as the world's fastest in 2010, said Zhang.

The exascale computer could have applications in big data and cloud computing work, he added, noting that its prototype would lead the world in data transmission efficiency as well as calculation speed.

As of last June, China for the first time had more top-ranked supercomputers than the US, according to a survey by supercomputer tracking website Top500.org.

中国新百亿亿次超级计算机样机预计年底研制成功

新华社天津１月１７日电（记者周润健、李鲲）２０１６年天津超算中心同国防科技大学合作，启动了新一代百亿亿次超级计算机样机系统的研制，目前已经取得了阶段性成果，预计２０１７年底能够研制成功。

这是天津市人大代表、天津超算中心应用研发工程师张婷出席１７日正在此间举行的天津市第十六届人大六次会议时接受记者采访时介绍的。

百亿亿次超级计算机，也称“Ｅ级超算”，被全世界公认为“超级计算机界的下一顶皇冠”，它将在解决人类共同面临的能源危机、污染和气候变化等重大问题上发挥巨大作用。

在国家“十三五”高性能计算专项课题中，国防科技大学、中科曙光和江南计算技术研究所同时获批进行百亿亿次超算的原型系统研制项目，形成了中国Ｅ级超算“三头并进”的局面。

张婷介绍说，新一代百亿亿次超级计算机预计２０２０年研制成功并建成投用，它的计算能力将是目前中国首台千万亿次超级计算机“天河一号”的２００倍。

除了在计算能力上的拓展，更重要的是技术的突破，它在计算密度、单块计算芯片计算能力、内部数据通信速率等方面都将得到极大提升，而且，它将是国内自主化率最高的超算，包括自主芯片、自主操作系统、自主运行计算环境等。

张婷表示，新一代百亿亿次超级计算机研制成功后，将依托超级计算平台，开展高性能计算、云计算、大数据等方面的综合应用，在支持国家科技创新、支持区域产业服务等方面开展新的应用创新。

http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2017/1/366185.shtm

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

China to develop prototype super, super computer in 2017
18 January,2017

The Asian giant built the world's fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine, in June 2016


BEIJING (AFP) - China plans to develop a prototype exascale computer by the end of the year, state media said Tuesday, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second.

If successful, the achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing.


The Asian giant built the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine, in June last year, which was twice as fast as the previous number one.

It used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology.

Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Though a prototype was in the pipeline, a complete version of such a machine would take a few more years to complete, Xinhua news agency cited Zhang Ting, application engineer at the National Supercomputer Center in the port city of Tianjin, as saying.

"A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applicationscan only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country’s first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognised as the world’s fastest in 2010," said Zhang.

The exascale computer could have applications in big data and cloud computing work, he added, noting that its prototype would lead the world in data transmission efficiency as well as calculation speed.

As of last June, China for the first time had more top-ranked supercomputers than the US, with 167 compared to 165, according to a survey by supercomputer tracking website Top500.org.

Of the top 10 fastest computers, two are in China and five in the US as of November, the ranking said. Others are in Japan and Switzerland.

China has poured money into big-ticket science and technology projects as it seeks to become a high-tech leader.


http://dunyanews.tv/en/Technology

 

[onebyone]

China's Next Supercomputer Capable of a Quintillion Calculations Per Second

In June of last year, China claimed the number one ranking on the TOP500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world with the Sunway TaihuLight. It is capable of 93 petaflops, or 93 thousand billion (quadrillion) floating-point operations per second. It replaced Tianhe-2 as the fastest, while at the same time being 3x as fast.

It seems unlikely Sunway TaihuLight will hold its top ranking for long, however, as China plans to achieve a supercomputing milestone before the end of 2017. According to AFP, work is being done on a prototype for a machine capable of performing a billion billion (quintillion) calculations per second, effectively making Sunway TaihuLight look slow. Once working, it will be the first example of an exascale supercomputer.

We shouldn't expect to see a fully-working exascale supercomputer until 2020, though. China carries out development on a Five-Year-Plan period, with the latest spanning 2016 to 2020. Delivery of this new supercomputer in its final form will occur at some point in 2020, when it will be installed at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in Hunan, whose motto is "Excel in Virtue and Knowledge; Strengthen the Armed Forces and the Nation."

A notable feature of the Sunway TaihuLight is a lack of US technology. The supercomputer used chips sourced from within China instead, more specifically, it used the 260-core manycore SW26010 processor designed by the National High Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center in Shanghai. We can probably expect the new exascale supercomputer to make the same claim while cementing China's place at the top of the supercomputing charts.

Meanwhile, according to The Next Platform the US hopes to have an exascale supercomputer by 2021.

http://www.pcmag.com/news/351114/chinas-next-supercomputer-capable-of-a-quintillion-calculat

 

[Jlaw]

Wow one quintillion calculations,per second. Great work China

 

[samsara]

China to reveal prototype 'super supercomputer' by year's end

By Phillip N. Tracy - The Daily Dot (2017-01-18)

It will be 50 times more powerful than any U.S. computer.

Photo via Shutterstock (CC-BY)
​

A Chinese research group says it will create a prototype exascale computer, or one that can calculate a quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) calculations per second, by the end of this year. A computer with that sort of power would be able to process complex data sets and mathematical modeling significantly faster than current machines.

According to its creator, Zhang Ting of China’s National Supercomputer Center, the early-version model will be revealed later this year, and a full-scale version should be expected by 2020.

"A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country's first petaflop computer, Tianhe-1, recognized as the world's fastest in 2010," Zhang said according to the Xinhua news agency.

China already possesses the world’s most powerful computer in the Sunway TaihuLight, which can perform 93,000 trillion calculations per second. The country also holds 167 of the world’s 500 fastest computers.

The United States has lagged a bit behind China in recent years, but America has its own exascale computer project in the works. The U.S. Department of Energy created the Exascale Computing Project, which was awarded nearly $40 million to upgrade current petascale computers.

"Exascale will enable computing systems capable of at least one quintillion calculations per second—50 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today," according to the Exascale Computer Project. "This exponential increase in computational power will fuel a vast range of breakthroughs and accelerate discoveries in science, medicine, national security, and many other fields, having a profound impact on economic competitiveness."

The United States is also working on a computer to compete with the Sunway TaihuLight, a 200 petaflop computer with an expected release date of 2018.

The advent of the cloud and trend toward virtualization coupled with increasing amount of data being gathered through Internet of Things sensors has increased the importance of computational processing. The faster large data sets can be processed the quicker they can be applied to algorithms and become operational.

H/T Phys.org

 

[cirr]

Tianhe-3 to offer faster, sharper data processing

China Daily, May 17, 2017

An engineer inspects the Tianhe-1 supercomputer at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin. [Photo: Xinhua]

China is stepping up research and development of the Tianhe-3 supercomputer, which aims to be 10 times faster than the current world leader, as it strives to meet the country's growing needs for more accurate and efficient computing capabilities.

The Tianhe-3 is designed as the world's first prototype exascale supercomputer, which means it can make a quintillion (1 followed by 18 zeros) calculations per second, and is intended to arm the country's manufacturers and government with greater speed, precision and scope for research.

The supercomputer will be applied in such fields as the analysis of smog distribution, airplane designs, oil surveying and the development of artificial intelligence.

These functions overlap with the nation's existing supercomputers, such as the Sunway TaihuLight, which is currently the world's fastest supercomputer, with a peak speed of 125 quadrillion (1 followed by 15 zeros) calculations per second, said Meng Xiangfei, director of application at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin.

"What sets the Tianhe-3 apart from the others is, for example, that it can help design more reliable aircraft by giving a view of its detail at a magnification of up to 10 times," Meng added.

He explained that when forecasting weather on a national scale, the measuring range of the Tianhe-3 can be as accurate as 1 square kilometer. That would be five to 10 times more accurate than other supercomputers.

"I think some weather forecasting applications in smartphones will become more accurate by the time the Tianhe-3 is fully functioning," said Meng, who confirmed the prototype is expected to be finished early next year and become fully operational by 2020.

He said that the development of the Tianhe-3 differs from the Sunway TaihuLight in some quite significant ways.

"To be specific, we are trying to make a 'supercell' which combines calculation, communication, big data and AI, which used to work separately. That is why the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin has brought in a new batch of AI experts," said Meng.

China is taking its computing power to the next level amid intensifying global competition in this field.

The United States is working on an exascale supercomputer, but its prototype will not appear until 2023. Japan is building a machine that can make 130 quadrillion calculations per second, which could surpass Sunway TaihuLight.

Wang Gang, an associate professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology of Jilin University, said China's supercomputers are chiefly used to assist scientific research, which need to process a huge amount of information within a short time span.

"But as the Tianhe-3 improves AI capabilities, it will not only calculate faster but also smarter. It will therefore have greater potential in terms of commercial application," Wang said.

Wang is working on a deep-learning project for autonomous driving. He has used the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer to assist his research, and expects the Tianhe-3 to be more helpful.

"China has an edge in hardware, but more efforts are needed to develop tailor-made software for supercomputers, in order to widen its application," Wang said.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2017-05/17/content_40831892.htm

 

[Beast]

Once quantum computer put into operation use. Human AI might become a reality.

 

[Shotgunner51]

The Tianhe-3 is designed as the world's first prototype exascale supercomputer

Good news!

The United States is working on an exascale supercomputer, but its prototype will not appear until 2023. Japan is building a machine that can make 130 quadrillion calculations per second, which could surpass Sunway TaihuLight.

Competition is fierce, fingers crossed!

 

[Shotgunner51]

China’s Supercomputer: “Exascale” is on the brink of completion
By Irene Adlaar -- May 8, 2017

The “Exascale” supercomputer has the capacity to execute 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second! Realistically the machine does not yet exist, but the possibility for a fully functional one will turn apparent in a few months, according to the National Supercomputer of China.

According to the researchers

Zhang Ting from the National Supercomputer Center in China recently gave a statement to Xinhua saying,

“A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can … be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country’s first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognized as the world’s fastest in 2010.”
​

The latest Sunway TaihuLight, on the other hand, has reached 124.5 petaflops, surpassing the existing Tianhe 1 and 2 (100 petaflops).

When the calculation is close to infinite …

The soon to be revealed Exascale supercomputer will be named “Tianhe-3” that can execute 1 quintillion calculation per second. FYI, the quintillion unit of measurement is used to calculate the Earth’s mass or the number of molecules existing within the human brain.

Where does the USA stand with respect to China?

The USA is also working on their own Exascale supercomputer, but their perfect prototype will not appear until 2023. The Department of Energy believes its invention can change the whole game in the research industry once it’s fully functioning. Its website stated,

“At 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second, exascale supercomputers will be able to quickly analyze massive volumes of data and more realistically simulate the complex processes and relationships behind many of the fundamental forces of the Universe.”​

The stakes will get higher for the USA if China releases its “Exascale” first. With two of its already existing supercomputers, the former nation must gear up for survival.

Image Source: Huffington Post

http://thetechnews.com/2017/05/08/chinas-supercomputer-exascale-brink-completion/

 

[Shotgunner51]

China's 3rd exascale supercomputer prototype set for 2018 launch
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-22 16:12:24

JINAN, June 22 (Xinhua) -- China is developing a third prototype exascale computing machine -- also known as a super supercomputer -- and plans to launch it by June 2018, according to the developers.

The Sunway exascale computer prototype is being developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology (NRCPC) and the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province.

The NRCPC led the team that developed Sunway TaihuLight, crowned the world's fastest computer two years in a row at both the 2016 and 2017 International Supercomputing Conferences held in Frankfurt, Germany.

An exascale computer is able to execute a quintillion calculations per second, around eight times faster than Sunway TaihuLight. The increase in computational speed will advance research in climate change, space science, medicine and oceanology among others.

China and the United States are currently leading exascale computer development. In China, prototypes are being developed by three teams led by

1. the NRCPC
2. Dawning Information Industry C. (Sogon), and
3. National University of Defense Technology (NUDT).

The three have been spear-heading China's supercomputer efforts with their respective brands:

1. Sunway. Sunway supercomputer's developers said they are eyeing applications in fields such as high performance numerical simulation in marine environments, to be used by State Oceanic Administration's First Institute of Oceanography in Qingdao. The city is at the forefront of China's marine scientific research as the base for the deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong.
   
2. Sogon. Sogon said it had begun developing the prototype late last year.
   
3. Tianhe. The NUDT, partnering the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, announced in January that their prototype will be ready by the end of 2017.

After the prototypes have been developed, exascale supercomputers are expected to hit the market by 2020.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-06/22/c_136386393.htm

 

[Suika]

Even with Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe-2, Japan's K Computer still seems to be the best at where it counts.

Anyone that has built their own computer would know that the performance of a computer depends on all the parts of the computer, not just the CPU. That includes the amount of RAM, Bus speed on the motherboard, and for 3D applications, the kind of videocard installed. In this way, the entire architecture of a supercomputer needs to be tested for complex applications. There are several purposes for computers, but the purposes that make its host nation stand out are the scientific, engineering, energy related, and technology related supercomputers. So for things like simulating the effects of an earthquake in a major city, the behavior of atoms, and so on, will require very complex operations, as this is the stuff at the frontier of scientific advancement. So for that, there are other benchmarks that better test the entire architecture of a supercomputer.

One example of a different benchmark is HPCG (High Performance Conjugate Gradient).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPCG_benchmark

This rating is giving for some of the supercomputers on the same Top500. If the list was sorted by HPCG, then it would be as.

1. K Computer (Japan)...............602.7
2. Tianhe-2 (China)....................580.1
3. Sunway TaihuLight (China)......480.8
4. Piz Daint (Switzerland)............470.0
5. Oaksforest-PACS (Japan)........385.5
6. Cori (USA)..............................355.4
7. Sequoia (USA)........................330.4
8. Titan (USA).............................322.3
9. Trinity (USA)............................182.6
10. Mira (USA).............................167.0





Another example of a benchmark that is supposed to better test the entire architecture of a supercomputer for complex operations is TEPS (Traversed Edges Per Second).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traversed_edges_per_second

The Graph500 supercomputer list ranks supercomputers by GTEPS. Again the K Computer is in the lead, by a lot too. Sunway TaihuLight is at number 2, but at a near tie with the number 3 computer, the Sequoia. Tianhe-2 is at 8 on this list.
http://graph500.org/?page_id=254

This of course does not change the fact that PRC is making a lot of advancements in supercomputers, and for even very complex task loads, the Sunway TaihuLiaght and Tianhe-2 still rank very well. But using an old style ranking to show that these two PRC computers are way ahead of the rest is misleading.




One other point is that, as we all know, China has many supercomputers. Recently having more than the US that make it on the Top500 list.

But where do they all stand in the Top500 list? If counting who has what within the top 100 of the Top500 list, then data comes out as the following.

USA: 37
Japan: 11
France: 9
Germany: 9
United Kingdom: 7
China: 5
Switzerland: 2
South Korea: 2
Poland: 1
Russia: 1

That makes 84 out of the top 100. There are other countries that I didn't feel like counting such as Finland, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, etc. Main point is.. after combining this with the rankings of the other benchmarks, then clearly, China is not nearly as dominant as the impression that is made by numerous news articles on the matter. We'll see how the new exascale supercomputers do.

 

[Keel]

This is super-encouraging (see below article) and we feel more jubilent than keeping the crown - for a staggering 8 times in a row and 10 times in total since inception that we have topped the list.

China's secretive mega chip powers the world's fastest computer
China sends a warning to Intel: We can develop blazing fast chips, too
By Agam Shah

U.S. Correspondent, IDG News Service | Jun 20, 2016 9:13 AM PT

Credit: Jack Dongarra, Report on the Sunway TaihuLight System, June 2016

• See also
  China to Build More Supercomputers With Homegrown Chips
• 

Fifteen years ago, China decided to build homegrown processors for PCs, servers, and supercomputers. Now the country's latest chip is powering the world's fastest computer.

The Sunway TaihuLight at the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, China, was ranked as the world's fastest supercomputer on a Top500 list published on Monday. It runs on a homegrown ShenWei processor and is capable of 93 petaflops (million billion floating point operations per second) of sustained performance. Its peak performance can reach 125.4 petaflops.

The supercomputer is a big statement that China doesn't have to rely on U.S. technology for its IT needs. China used Intel's chips to build the world's second fastest supercomputer, the Tianhe-2, which until recently held the top spot on the Top500 list.

The U.S. in April last year banned the export of some Intel Xeon chips to China for use in supercomputers, with the government concerned the chips would be used in activities against U.S. interests. The Tianhe-2 and Tianhe-1A were allegedly used in nuclear weapon tests, which partly spurred the export ban.

The embargo on the Xeon chips did not affect the building of the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. China already had set its sights on building the first supercomputer that could deliver a performance of more than 100 petaflops, Top500 wrote.

But the embargo did strengthen the resolve and precipitated efforts of China to build its own homegrown chips.

For the Chinese, the development of indigenous IT equipment, especially for high-performance computing, is a matter of priority and national pride, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.

"They are trying to show their moxie here, and they are doing a pretty good job," Brookwood said.

Developing a high-tech chip gives China bragging rights to stand up against countries and top chip-makers like Intel. It's also a matter of cost, Brookwood said.

"China spends more on IT equipment than oil," Brookwood said.

The home-grown Chinese chip also gives the country some weight and bargaining power against top chip makers Intel, IBM, and Qualcomm, who are trying to push their own chips to server makers in China.

The ShenWei processor may not make it to servers used in data centers, but may be a bargaining chip for China to use against companies like Intel and Qualcomm to make concessions as a way to gain business in the country.

A supercomputer with a homegrown Chinese chip, the Sunway BlueLight MPP, running an early version of the ShenWei processor, entered the Top500 list in November 2011 at number 14. It was the first Chinese supercomputer with a homegrown chip to enter the Top500 list and was ranked at 119 on the list released on Monday.

China, the U.S., Japan, and European countries are in a constant race to build the world's fastest computer. China had 167 supercomputers on the Top500 list, beating the U.S., which had 165.

The Sunway TaihuLight has the ShenWei SW26010 processor, a monster 260-core chip. Each chip delivers a performance of 3 teraflops, which Top500 rated as being on par with Intel's latest Xeon Phi chip code-named Knights Landing. That chip is rated as one of the company's fastest.

The Chinese supercomputer has a staggering 10,649,600 cores over 40,960 nodes. It was developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology.

With Sunway TaihuLight, China is also the first country to make a supercomputer that passes 100 petaflops in performance. Countries are in a race to make a computer that can deliver a performance of an exaflop, or a million trillion calculations per second, which is expected to be reached sometime after 2020.

There's still is some mystery to China's latest homegrown chip. It is a 64-bit RISC processor, which Top500 speculates is based on the DEC Alpha architecture. The supercomputer has 1.3 petabytes of the older DDR3 memory, and uses 15.3 megawatts of power, making it more power-efficient than the number two supercomputer Tianhe-2, which uses 17.8 megawatts. It also has a homegrown interconnect, though its based on PCI-Express 3.0

China over years has developed a chip called Godson, which has been used in PCs, though progress has seemingly stalled.

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http://www.pcworld.com/article/3086...-chip-powers-the-worlds-fastest-computer.html