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Chinese supercomputer leapfrogs best US machines to be ranked world’s fastest
The Guardian • • business
Key Points:
- China’s LineShine supercomputer in Shenzhen has become the world’s most powerful, surpassing the US’s El Capitan and marking the first time since 2017 that a Chinese machine tops the Top500 rankings.
- Unlike many high-performance computers that use graphics processors (GPUs), LineShine runs entirely on conventional CPUs and operates at 2.198 exaflops, performing over 2 quintillion calculations per second.
- The US maintains a strong presence with El Capitan ranking second, followed by other national lab supercomputers, while Germany’s Jupiter drops to fifth place; only five publicly verified exascale computers exist globally.
- Europe is investing €20bn in AI “gigafactories” to develop next-generation AI models with supercomputers exceeding 100,000 AI processors, aiming for innovations in healthcare, biotech, and robotics, but concerns remain about their environmental impact.
- The UK and Australia have multiple machines in the Top500 list, with the University of Bristol’s Isambard-AI ranked highest in the UK at 11th place, and Western Australia’s Setonix at 86th, reflecting global distribution of advanced computing resources.
