China, supercomputer superpower

TaihuLight Supercomputer, 125 petaFLOPS. © National Supercomputing Centre, Wuxi.

For the first time, China has become the country with the most systems on the yearly list of top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world. China took 202 spots in the ranking, eclipsing the United States, with only 144 systems – its lowest ranking since the list was established 25 years ago. Supercomputer horsepower is critical to some of the most important scientific studies of our time, like weather modeling, climate research, astrophysics, and particle physics, to name a few. We’re seeing China increasingly invest in the sciences to become a technological superpower, while the United States is slowly giving up its crown as the world leader in this domain.

⇨ Cnet, “China’s supercomputers race past US to world dominance.”