SPOTLIGHT: China Dominates List Of World’s Top Supercomputers Again
Once again, China dominated a new list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, not only taking the top two seats, but also pulling ahead of the United States in the sheer number of systems being used.
CHINA’S DOMINANCE
According to a biannual ranking of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, called the Top500 published Monday, China’s Sunway TaihuLight maintains the lead as the No. 1 system for the fourth time, with a performance of 93.01 petaflops. China’s Tianhe-2, or Milky Way-2, is still the No. 2 system at 33.86 petaflops.
Intel chip-based Tianhe-2 had topped the list for three years until it was displaced in November 2015 by TaihuLight, which was built by entirely using processors designed and made in China.
The No. 3 is Switzerland’s Piz Daint, which is also the most powerful supercomputer in Europe.
A new system in Japan, called Gyoukou, is the No. 4, pushing Titan, the top U.S system, to the No. 5. “For the second time in a row there is no system from the U.S. under the TOP3,” Top500 said in a statement. And that’s not all.
The 50th edition of Top500 ranking also shows that China has overtaken the United States in the total number of ranked systems by a margin of 202 to 144. Just six months ago, the United States. led with 169 systems, and China with 159.
“It is the largest number of supercomputers China has ever claimed on the TOP500 ranking, with the U.S. presence shrinking to its lowest level since the list’s inception 25 years ago,” Top500 said. “China now clearly shows a substantially larger number of installations than the United States.” China has also overtaken the United States in aggregate performance as well. The Asian country now claims 35.3 percent of the TOP500 flops, with the United States at second place with 29.8 percent.
AMERICAN STRENGTH
When it comes to companies making these systems, the U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard Enterprise has the lead in the number of installed supercomputers at 123, which represents nearly a quarter of all TOP500 systems.
China’s Lenovo followed HPE with 81 systems, down from 88 systems on the June list, and another Chinese company called Inspur jumped to the third position with 56 systems, up from the sixth place and 20 systems only six month ago.
Liu cautioned that China’s overtaking of the United States in the total number of ranked systems didn’t make too much sense.