China wins fastest supercomputer crown for 4th time

For the fourth consecutive year, China has retained the top spot in the list of the world's fastest supercomputers for its Tianhe-2, according to a biannual Top500 list released today.
Tianhe-2, developed by China's National University of Defence Technology, can operate at 33.86 petaflops per second (Pflop/s), the equivalent of 33,860 quadrillion calculations per second.
The National Supercomputer Centre in Guangzhou in south China, where Tianhe-2 is installed, is reportedly making an update to increase the system's speed to more than 100 Pflop/s.
The updated list came close on the heels of an announcement last week by the US that it will spend USD 325 million on building two supercomputers, which will be three to five times faster than Tianhe-2.

However, there is no immediate danger to the top spot of Tianhe-2 as the US system will be operational only by 2018, Jack Dongarra, professor of the University of Tennessee and Top500 editor, was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.
"And before that, there will be no machine that can dethrone the Chinese supercomputer," Dongarra said.

Titan, installed at the DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, remains the No. 2 system with a performance of 17.59 Pflop/s. Sequoia, installed at the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is again the No. 3 system with a performance of 17.17 Pflop/s.
Japan's K computer is the No. 4 system with 10.51 Pflop/s, followed by Mira, installed at the DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, which has a performance of 8.59 Pflop/s.

In terms of overall systems, the US remains the top country with 231 supercomputers, followed by China, Japan, Britain, France, and Germany.