China's Super Computer to Have China-made Chips

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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China’s fastest super computer “Tianhe-1,” (“Tianhe” meaning Milky Way), is to be equipped this year with China-made central processing unit (CPU) chips, replacing the only part of the computer that is currently imported.

Zhang Yulin, president of the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) which developed the computer, told Xinhua Monday that the chips, also developed by the NUDT, are customized for this super computer.

“The new CPUs will greatly raise the peak speed and computing efficiency of ‘Tianhe-1’,” Zhang said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the country’ s top legislature now meeting in Beijing.

“Tianhe-1,” unveiled in October last year, could rival the world’s most powerful computers. Theoretically, it is capable of more than one quadrillion calculations per second when operating at peak speed.

Experts note that one day’s task for “Tianhe-1” might take 160 years for a mainstream dual-core personal computer to complete.

Equipped with 6,144 Intel CPUs and 5,120 AMD graphic processing units (GPU), “Tianhe-1” is able to store the contents of all 27 million books in the National Library of China four times over.

In January, “Tianhe-1” began partial trial operations in north China’s Tianjin municipality. Currently, the first batch of the computer equipment has been successfully tested, and is at the stage of customer trials.

At present, according to officials, the operational power of the first batch of equipment is equal to one-tenth of “Tianhe-1.” Installation of other components of “Tianhe-1” is expected to be completed by the end of this year. (Xinhua)

China’s Super Computer to Have China-made Chips—Chinese Academy Of Sciences

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I don't understand. If it has Intel and AMD chips how is it chinese made cpu?

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Dont argue with cut & paste idiot who does not read what he is pasting!

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Re: China's Super Computer to Have China-made Chips

no no, i am just trying to understand. it could be a translation problem. may be it had intel and amd when built and now they are trying to replace them with local cpu?

it is quite an important development if true

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Bahi,

At the moment it has "imported" chips.

Later this year it will have Chinese made chips.

Simple.

Me thinks, so-called "super computers" are overrated and merely use for bragging rights.

Or perhaps chinese want to say that they can now make their own chips and are not dependent on US companies like Intel and AMD.

But the problem is that we have not seen any notebooks or laptops that have replaced intel or AMD at their core.

If that's the case, China must be spending $1 million per chip compared to $200 for an equivalent Intel model.

The reason is simple! Intel can sell chips that are cheaper, because they make millions and millions of those, and thus the cost per unit becomes very low and affordable.

On the other hand if Chinese made couple of hundred of those chips for their super duper computer, then their cost per chip would be very very high.

Even if cost per chip is not a factor,

It is one thing to put few hundred thousand chips together and claim the speed and capacity.

It is wholly another ball game to write programs that can truly use the supercomputers at the top speed and fully memory capacity.

So remember!

it is the bragging rights thingy and nothing else (and in the worst case scenario, Chinese taxpayers are footing a HUGE bill for something very very trivial).