China Plans To Develop Powerful Exascale Computer

[Megalith]

Not content with having already developed the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight, China is now working on a machine capable of a quintillion calculations per second. This follows the news of IBM releasing a 200-petaflop computer next year, and Japan’s intention of building a 130-petaflop one.

China plans to develop a prototype exascale computer by the end of the year, state media said Tuesday, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second. If successful, the achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing. The Asian giant built the world's fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine, in June last year, which was twice as fast as the previous number one. It used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology. Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

 

[Armenius]

We already knew China was one of four in the exascale race, and we're still looking at 2020 as the earliest an actual exascale project will be operational.

https://www.top500.org/news/the-four-way-race-to-exascale/

It seems like this is the new space race. But I'm not really interested in who gets there first. I'm interested in who does it efficiently. It sounds to me that both China and the US are going for a brute force approach in order to beat the other out of the gate.