Pegged at 33.86 petaflops, the National University of Defense Technology’s computer performed nearly twice as well as the runner-up, the US’s Titan supercomputer housed at Oak Ridge National Lab.
While China’s Tianhe-2 is an impressive piece of machinery, computing experts are torn as to whether the machines full potential is being put to use. Unlike the computers that you use all calculations that run on a supercomputer a custom made to work with the computers vast architecture.
According to reports Chinese computer scientists are still working on porting applications to the Tianhe-2. In contrast on the first day of operation Oak Ridge’s Titan had 5 applications ready to crunch simulation data for experiments ranging from combustion simulations to atmospheric modeling.
Although its possible that the Tianhe-2 isn’t currently realizing its full potential once developers get the right code in place the resolution and complexity of computer simulations will surely reach new heights.
Just in case you’re keeping score here’s the Top 10 List for most powerful supercomputer as compiled by Top500 on November 18, 2013.
1. Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) - 33.86 petaflops
2. Titan - 17.59 petaflops
3. Sequoia - 17.17 petaflops
4. K computer - 10.51 petaflops
5. Mira - 8.59 petaflops
6. Piz Daint - 6.27 petaflops
7. Stampede - 5.17 petaflops
8. JUQUEEN - 5.01 petaflops
9. Vulcan - 4.29 petaflops
10. SuperMUC - 2.90 petaflops