[In Depth] China overtakes U.S. supercomputing lead
A new supercomputer at China's National Supercomputing Center has snagged the top spot on a list of the world's fastest machines. The Sunway TaihuLight can perform 93 petaflop, or 93 quadrillion calculations, per second—nearly three times the speed of its closest competitor, China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer, and 2 million times faster than a standard laptop. More important, for the first time China has overtaken the United States as the country with the largest installed supercomputing capacity. The rankings come from the latest TOP500 list of supercomputers, unveiled this week at the 2016 International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Experts say China's preeminence in supercomputing could pay off for research, engineering, and commerce. Author: Robert F. Service