China`s supercomputer retains world`s most powerful system title

London: China`s supercomputer Tianhe-2 has been reportedly able to retain its top position, awarded in June, in the latest list of world`s most powerful systems.

Tianhe-2 can operate at 33.86 petaflop/s, or 33,863 trillion calculations per second. The Top500 list is compiled twice-yearly by a team led by a professor from Germany`s University of Mannheim. According to the BBC, the list measures how fast the computers can solve a special type of linear equation to determine their speed, without taking into account other factors like data transfer speed from one part of the system to another. IBM, which created five out of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the latest list, said that it believed the way the list was calculated should now be updated and more practical experimentation should be included. The report said that China`s super system uses a mixture of processors made by Intel as well as custom-made CPUs designed by the university itself and is to be offered as research and education tool with car industry as the priority client. The Top500 list states that Tianhe-2 requires 17,808 of kW power, more than double the 8,209 kW needed by Titan or the 7,890 kW needed by US-developed Sequoia , the report added.