Tianhe Xingyi supercomputer: China unveils the 'fastest' homegrown supercomputer

China's supremacy dented

China's tryst with supercomputers began in the 1980s, but it took the Asian country two decades to make noteworthy progress. By the end of the first decade of this century, China had achieved global fame by developing the Tianhe-1 supercomputer. Three years later, the National University of Defense Technology, under the guidance of the NSC, unveiled the Tianhe-2 supercomputer that reached the top spot in the TOP500 list.

China's dominance in the field became evident when the Tianhe-2 remained unbeaten for the next three years until the US government blacklisted the university, cutting off access to crucial Intel processes used in the Tianhe-2. The supercomputer may have lost the top spot but continues to remain among the top 10 supercomputers of the world.

The Asian superpower's supremacy reached its peak in 2019 when it handsomely beat the US by successfully listing 228 supercomputers in the Top 500 list. Following this, the country has taken a back seat in the race allowing the US to dominate the rankings, a move that had many experts surprised.

Building homegrown tech

It now appears that China spent the subsequent years building homegrown technology to support the development of supercomputers. The Tianhe Xingyi is built using domestically designed architecture.

Although the exact specifications of the supercomputer have been withheld, Lu Yutong, the director of the NSC, told the gathering at the industry event that the latest supercomputer surpassed the capabilities of the Tianhe-2 in areas such as CPU computing power, networking efficiency, storage capacity, and application performance. This would effectively put the supercomputer among the top 10 supercomputers in the world but built independent of the US-based technology.

China has focused its attention on developing its processors, such as Loongson, and interconnects needed to build its supercomputers in the face of export restrictions and supply chain uncertainties. The US decision in 2016 may have backfired and propelled China on a path to technological independence in this area.

At this rate, China is well positioned to beat the US in developing exascale supercomputers that can complete a billion billion calculations per second and reclaim the top spot in the TOP500 list again.

The report containes information that appeared in Gizmo China and China Money Network.