Earlier this week it came to light that the US Department of Energy (DOE) is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new supercomputerThis organization runs the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which is home to the most powerful supercomputer in the world today and which should be surpassed by the machine soon to be on the way sometime between 2027 and 2028.
When we talk about the most powerful supercomputers we usually take into account the prestigious list TOP 500 which, as its name suggests, brings together the 500 most outstanding machines on the planet. However, things are changing and the aforementioned list may not be a true reflection of reality. In this context, China comes into play, having stopped participating in the TOP 500, and which clearly cares a lot about supercomputing.
China no longer participates in the TOP 500
In 2022, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post echoed of the Asian giant’s turn to show off its supercomputing capabilities to the world. Chinese organizations continued to debut new supercomputers, but They were not sharing information with TOP 500. This occurred amid rising tensions between China and the US over trade restrictions imposed by the latter.
As we have seen over the past few years, Washington has been trying to slow down China’s technological development by limiting access to its most advanced technologies. The argument for pushing through these measures has always revolved around containing the military development of the country led by Xi Jinping so as not to endanger “national security”. Despite this, China has reportedly continued to build highly capable supercomputers.
Tianjin National Supercomputing Center
Since China has decided to keep some of its latest supercomputing advances private There is no official data that would allow us to say whether the country has teams that are superior to those of the US. Some experts in the field believe that this could be the case. Jack Dongarra, the co-founder of TOP50 He told The Wall Street Journal that “the Chinese have machines that are faster,” but that they have not presented the data.
Dongarra believes there are at least 50 supercomputers from Chinese organisations that would make it into the TOP 500 if the country were to submit the data. However, this is no longer a big deal for Beijing, which wants to keep certain information secret. In any case, this does not mean that China is having an easy time. Restrictions on access to advanced chips are hampering their development, although they are also driving their technological independence.
Images | Wikimedia Commons | National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou
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