China's newest supercomputer uses homegrown chips - — 31
October, 2011 15:19 China has built its first supercomputer
based entirely on homegrown microprocessors, a major step in
breaking the country's reliance on Western technology for high-
performance computing. China's National Supercomputer Center in
Jinan unveiled the computer last Thursday, according to a report
from the country's state-run press. The supercomputer uses 8,704
"Shenwei 1600" microprocessors, which were developed by a design
center in Shanghai, called the National High Performance
Integrated Circuit Design Center. Details of the microprocessors
and the design center were not immediately available. The
supercomputer has a theoretical peak speed of 1.07 petaflops
(quadrillion floating-point calculations per second), and a
sustained performance of 0.79 petaflops when measured with the
Linpack benchmark. This could place it at number 13 in the
world's top 500 supercomputing list. Photos of the chips used
and the supercomputer's data center can