China has started to build a new-generation supercomputer that is expected to be 10 times faster than the current world champion.
This year, China is aiming to build the world’s first prototype exascale supercomputer, the Tianhe-3.
The prototype is expected to be completed by 2018. Its computing power is on the next level, cementing China as the world leader in supercomputer hardware.
It would be available for public use and “help us tackle some of the world’s toughest scientific challenges with greater speed, precision and scope”.
Tianhe-3 will be made entirely in China, from processors to operating system. It will be stationed in Tianjin and fully operational by 2020, earlier than the US plan for its exascale supercomputer.
Tianhe-1, China’s first quadrillion-level supercomputer developed in 2009, is now working at full capacity, undertaking more than 1,400 assignments each day, solving problems “from stars to cells”.