China has the world’s most powerful supercomputer for the third time in a row as the country once again ups its presence in the global top 500 of powerful computers. The computer with the name Tianhe-2 was top of the twice-yearly list that keeps tabs on supercomputer development and growth.
The top performing computer, Tianhe-2, had its power measured at 33.86 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second). It has been just five years since IBM’s Roadrunner became the first computer to break the 1 petaflop/s mark. That machine was shut down in 2013 due to excessive power consumption.
China had 76, up from 63 in the last count. This is almost as many as the UK (30), France (27) and Germany (23) combined. The full list will be published on Monday at a conference in Leipzig, Germany. The top500 list is a widely-recognized barometer of the state of worldwide supercomputing. It has been published twice yearly since 1993.
Tianhe-2 is owned by the Chinese government and operated by the National University of Defense Technology. It is used as a “research and educational” tool.
source: Top500.org