China develops fastest super computer

BEIJING: China has developed a super computer that runs at more than one quadrillion (one thousand million million) calculations per second, making it the fastest one in the country, experts have said.

The super computer named "Xingyun", has been developed in Tianjin, and works at double the speed of "Tianhe-1", the previous fastest machine in China.

The Tianhe-1 was developed by the National University of Defence Technology in October 2009, Li Jun, president of the Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd., was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

"Its peak performance reaches nearly three quadrillion calculations per second, three times the peak speed of Tianhe-1," Li said.

Experts say one second of its work may take a whole day for a dual-core personal computer.

"Xingyun" is the server of "Dawning 6000", jointly developed by the company, Chinese Academy of Sciences Calculation Institution, and the South China Supercomputing Centre, for cloud computing and DNA sequencing purposes, officials said.

By the end of 2010, "Dawning 6000" will be delivered to the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen in Guangdong province for use in information services in southern China, including Hong Kong and Macao.

Beijing-based Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd. was founded in 1995 and is the country's leading company in the field of high-performance computers. IANS