Surprise Supercomputer Sizzles
From BBC News
“A China-based supercomputer has leapfrogged rivals to be named the world’s most powerful system.
Tianhe-2, developed by the government-run National University of Defense Technology, topped the latest list of the fastest 500 supercomputers, by a team of international researchers.
Chinese officials said the news was a “surprise” since the system had not been expected to be ready until 2015.
China last held the top rank for supercomputers between November 2010 and June 2011.
Tianhe-2 ( meaning Milky Way-2) operates at 33.86 petaflop/sec, the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second.
The benchmark measures real-world performance – but in theory the machine hit a “peak performance” of 54.9 petaflop/sec.
The project was sponsored by the Chinese government’s 863 High Technology Program. It’s an effort to make the country’s hi-tech industries more competitive and less dependent on overseas rivals.
Chinese officials said it intends to install the equipment at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, based in the country’s south-eastern Guangdong province, where it will be offered as a “research and education” resource to southern China.
The machine uses a total of 3.12 million processor cores, using Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Xeon Phi chips to carry out its calculations.
According to the list, the US has the world’s second and third fastest supercomputers, Titan and Sequoia, while Japan’s K computer drops to fourth spot.”
See more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22936989
Hmmm…
China’s got a super computer,
It’s not for your average commuter,
It’s stored in a center,
Where very few enter,
It’s nothing you’ll see at a Hooters.
It does trillions of calcs in a wink,
That’s faster than humans can think,
Intel’s found in its brain,
It’s so fast, it’s insane,
Now they’ll hack us before we can blink.
© 2013 Ronald J. Yarosh
Humorous Interludes by Ron Yarosh 
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