For the second time in a year China is home to the world’s fastest supercomputer. Named the Tianhe-2, or Milky Way 2, the new supercomputer is capable of performing 33.86 petaflops/s, or 33.86 trillion operations per second.
The computer which was built and is maintained by China’s National University of Defense Technology represents a major step in the development of China’s supercomputing industry. While the chips used in the Milky Way 2 are made by Intel all other functional components of the machine are of Chinese manufacture.
Industy experts agree that in the coming years China will look to replace these foreign made chips with domestic equivalents.
While some believe that building faster supercomputers is a frivolous endeavor, it must be noted that supercomputers help scientist examine complex scenarios and push innovations in a number of scientific disciplines.
View the other computers on the Top 500 supercomputer list, here.
Image Courtesy of Top 500