In a list of supercomputers compiled by the National University of Defence Technology which is a government run institution China’s new supercomputer Tianhe-2 has topped the 500 strong list.
The system was not supposed to be finished before 2015 and was said to be a “surprise” when it topped the list. China was last featured at the top of the list between 2010 and 2011 when it was overtaken by Japan’s supercomputer, K. The US then built two supercomputers pushing Japan’s into 4 position on the list, however, Tianhe-2 is now almost double the US’s speed surely leading the US into slight computer envy.
Tianhe-2 can operate at an incredible 33.86 petaflop per second, the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations every second. The beast of a machine has 3.12 million Xeon Phi and Ivy Bridge chips said to be used for research and education.
China now has 66 supercomputers featured on the list with the US having a total of 252.
