The rise of the supercomputer in China

19th November 2015

Joe Bush

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There has recently been a reported slowdown in China’s economic growth. Although it did in fact grow by 6.9% in the third quarter (a rate that would be the envy of many countries), that represents the slowest rate of growth since 2009. Manufacturing and construction has experienced a marked decrease, which has in turn seen a decline in the demand for oil, iron ore and other commodities – an impact which has been felt globally. Developing economies that rely on Chinese investment have also been left anxious.

However, an area that is seeing no sign of slowing down is the rate at which supercomputers are being installed in the country to perform complex simulations and applications that aid scientific research in a variety of industry sectors, from predicting the weather and space exploration to aiding DNA sequencing. The number of supercomputers in the country has tripled in the last three years – in contrast to the number in the US which has declined.

The rise of the supercomputer is predominantly down to the shift in the country’s economy and business make-up. Whereas China was previously a manufacturing hub, first and foremost, there is now far more technical research and design work taking place, meaning China has shifted from a producer of products that are designed elsewhere to a product creator.

The world’s most powerful supercomputer, the Tianhe-2, which was created by China’s National University of Defense Technology, is capable of performing 33.86 quadrillion calculations in one second, which is almost twice the speed of the world’s second most powerful supercomputer - the US energy department’s Titan.