hina now dominates a biannual ranking of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, called the Top500, which was published on Monday. The Chinese supercomputer is the world’s fastest machine for the seventh consecutive time, it has the largest number of computers among the top 500 — a first for any country other than the United States.
Also for the first time, the world’s fastest supercomputer uses Chinese-made microprocessor chips instead of chips from Silicon Valley’s Intel.
Supercomputers are viewed in scientific circles as an indicator of national technology leadership, and they are vital for research in areas ranging from the development of new weapons and medicines, to the design of cars and consumer products.
“Consumer detergent bottles are designed with supercomputers even today,” said Eric D. Isaacs, a physicist at the University of Chicago. “The Chinese are getting good at building these computers, and it’s a competitive issue now for U.S. industry and national security.”
The United States Government support for supercomputing has been slowed by long-running debates on the level of federal spending on basic scientific research, as well as opposition to funding for industrial innovation that is not directly related to national security.
Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon invest billions of dollars in cloud-computing centers that don’t focus on solving scientific problems.
The sale of a number of advanced microprocessors to China was blocked by the US over concerns they were being used in nuclear weapon development, which most likely accelerated the development of China’s own technology, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist.
http://www.phoenixnewsonline.com/2016/06/21/china-dominates-in-worlds-supercomputing/