China replaces US as builder of fastest supercomputer


28 Oct 2010

The fastest supercomputer said to have ever been built comes from the National University of Defense Technology, a research centre in China. The feat replaces the US as maker of the swiftest machine.

The Tianhe-1A has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which sits in a laboratory in the state of Tennessee in the US, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, the New York Times reported.

Jack Dongarra, a UT computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings, said Tianhe-1A “blows away the existing No 1 machine.”

“We don’t close the books until Nov 1, but I would say it is unlikely we will see a system that is faster,” he said.