China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer, developed by China's National University of Defense Technology, has taken top spot among the world's top 500 supercomputers. This is an important marker for the rapid growth of China's science and technology.

The Tianhe-1A system at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin can perform a mind-numbing 2.57 quadrillion calculations per second.

Among the top 500 computers on the list, officially unveiled on Tuesday by researchers from the United States and Europe, 41 are from China. China also has two systems in the top 10, of which seven achieved performance at or above one petaflop/s. The US has 275 computers on the list, France, Germany and Japan each have 26, Britain 24 and Russia 11.

It is a significant achievement for China, given the fierce international competition in supercomputing, which is a fundamental tool for a nation's scientific research in various areas, such as geology, meteorology, and oil exploration as well as the aviation, automobile and chemical industries.

The list was compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

In the early 1990s, almost all computers in China were imported and scientific research institutes could only use computers under the supervision and control of foreign experts.

In recent years, Chinese researchers have worked hard to develop China's own supercomputers, with the support of the 863 Program, a government-sponsored national high-tech research and development initiative.

These "Made-in-China" supercomputers not only break the blockade imposed by foreign countries, they also narrow the gap between China and developed countries. They have even made China a world leader in some technologies.

To some extent, supercomputers reflect a country's demand for computing capacity and the development level of a country's fundamental research and development and high-tech industries. As an official from the French Atomic Energy Commission pointed out the computing speed of Tianhe-1A showed the increased competitive strength of China's economy.

However, it needs to be remembered that China still lags behind such developed countries as the US in overall computing capacity, especially in core electronics and high-end chip development.

The US and Japan are developing supercomputers with better performance than the Tianhe-1A, and in the future, various countries will probably take turns holding the lead in supercomputer development. China still faces an arduous task catching up with supercomputing in other countries.

However, Tianhe-1A has given "Made-in-China" its place in the realm of supercomputers and sent a signal announcing the rapid development of China's science and technology.

(China Daily 11/19/2010 page8)