China Builds World's Fastest Supercomputer Without U.S. Chips (computerworld.com)

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China Builds World's Fastest Supercomputer Without U.S. Chips (computerworld.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday June 20, 2016 @02:00AM from the supercomputer dept.

Reader dcblogs writes: China on Monday revealed its latest supercomputer, a monolithic system with 10.65 million compute cores built entirely with Chinese microprocessors. This follows a U.S. government decision last year to deny China access to Intel's fastest microprocessors. There is no U.S.-made system that comes close to the performance of China's new system, the Sunway TaihuLight. Its theoretical peak performance is 124.5 petaflops (Linpack is 93 petaflops), according to the latest biannual release today of the world's Top500 supercomputers. It has been long known that China was developing a 100-plus petaflop system, and it was believed that China would turn to U.S. chip technology to reach this performance level. But just over a year ago, in a surprising move, the U.S. banned Intel from supplying Xeon chips to four of China's top supercomputing research centers. The U.S. initiated this ban because China, it claimed, was using its Tianhe-2 system for nuclear explosive testing activities. The U.S. stopped live nuclear testing in 1992 and now relies on computer simulations. Critics in China suspected the U.S. was acting to slow that nation's supercomputing development efforts. There has been nothing secretive about China's intentions. Researchers and analysts have been warning all along that U.S. exascale (an exascale is 1,000 petaflops) development, supercomputing's next big milestone, was lagging.

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consequences... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-06-20 02:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

This happens when you don't allow export of your chips to someone who has the knowledge to design their own chips.
It gives them the incentive to accelerate development and deployment of their homegrown designs.
Not only do you lose a business opportunity, you're also in danger of losing your technology leadership.
1. Re:consequences... by bigpat · 2016-06-20 04:13 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  This happens when you don't allow export of your chips to someone who has the knowledge to design their own chips.
  It gives them the incentive to accelerate development and deployment of their homegrown designs.
  Not only do you lose a business opportunity, you're also in danger of losing your technology leadership.
  Yes, penny wise, but pound foolish decision. China would never do the same to us because they want us to be dependent on their production.
  It is pretty idiotic that our foreign policy and military establishment seem intent on picking periodic fights with China over stupid little things rather than trying to elevate the relationship to become close allies. China and US economies are closely tied. We literally would not have Christmas without China. Much of our equipment is made in China. And for China they have the US to thank for much of their growth over the past 40 years.
  And they have a military that could hurt us quite a bit once they turn off our satellites and other technology. Or worse, use our technology against us after they infiltrate it.
  Despite fighting a proxy war with China in Korea sixty years ago, we don't have the kind of bad blood that especially poisons their relations with Japan, Vietnam or even Korea.
  For the sake of US prosperity and world peace it would be best to find the compromises that can keep us on good terms and get us to better relations and not push us further apart.
  As for Chinese human rights... well we are allies with Saudi Arabia which has the worst human rights record on the planet. And we are far less (indirectly) dependent on Saudi oil than we used to be.
2. Re: consequences... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-06-20 04:27 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  so you would just give them the south china sea uncontested in violation of all international laws and treaties?
  forgot tibet already?' tiannamen square ring a bell?
  no? ok lets just be friends yay!
3. Re: consequences... by jovius · 2016-06-20 05:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Every techonological advancement is based on 'other people's' work. That's the very nature of scientific research. Open communication, peer reviewing and co-development are hindered or led astray by nationalistic political interests, which are _the obstacles_ to overcome.
4. Re:consequences... by whodunit · 2016-06-20 08:02 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It is pretty idiotic that our foreign policy and military establishment seem intent on picking periodic fights with China over stupid little things rather than trying to elevate the relationship to become close allies.
  
  Have you been living under a rock for the last several years? The Chinese have been using dredgers to build artificial islands atop coral reefs in the South China Sea, and these islands are now equipped with huge runways for operating military craft from fighters to patrol aircraft to medium bombers; all so they can project firepower over the entire South China Sea. To simply claim the entire Sea right up to the coasts of their regional neighbors as their own is one thing, but China has invested in a massive military build-up to back up their claims with raw force. Many of those nations are our regional allies, especially the Philippines. And if that's not enough, the Chinese have long engaged in hostile cybercrimes against the United States, not only hacking critical military defense information (like the information on the F-35 they stole) but also an ongoing government-ran campaign to steal American commercial trade secrets that mirrors their complete and utter disdain for Western Intellectual Property rights.
  And you're going to tell me that America is the one "picking fights" because we dared sail a ship too close to a few of their sand-castles? Freedom of Navigation exercises are run frequently, all over the globe, and are NOT mutually exclusive with traditional diplomacy.
  I understand that some people are deeply suspicious or even disdainful of America's role in world politics; but when you try to make out the 800 pound gorilla of Asia - who's busy mugging everyone it can get its hairy paws on - as the poor victim here, you just come across as a moron.
Where is the news? by Opportunist · 2016-06-20 02:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

A computer built with hardware that was NOT made in China, that would be news.

--
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Re:Aern't most of China's chips based on the Alpha by slack_justyb · 2016-06-20 02:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

It really is non-US chips no matter how they got the original blueprints. The notion of US intellectual property in China is laughable at best. Additionally, China may not have a lot of folks that can invent, and that pretty much goes for all other countries because Intel is actually that good at being a brain drain but I digress, but they are incredibly good at trial and error/educated guessing on quite remarkable scales. So while they may not invent the process for 5nm chips, once they see one done and get a few pictures of the process, they're pretty good at putting the pieces together to get up and running.
However, it is my opinion that the bigger point here isn't that China is great at stealing technology, it is that China, and more so the world, honestly doesn't need American technology especially if the Americans are so hell bent in making insecure devices and resorting to petty trade restrictions to maintain some sort of faux-superiority position because the American legislative body finds in unstylish to fund actual research to maintain a real superiority position or they feel that real superiority is found in funding some guy digging a tunnel to extract black rocks, pumping dead liquid dinosaur remains from the ground, or ensuring that humans build crap at ineffective rates.
If anything Americans should take this as a sign that their priorities are insanely messed up. Doubtful that they would actually do anything about it, but at least they can know that all their Jerry Springer level bickering will ultimately mean that they need to resort to more and more useless childish games on ensuring that they stay relevant on the global stage. The downside to that is that the rest of the world has to suffer these stupid antics because Americans can't grow up and admit that they're loosing the top spot.
Re:Aern't most of China's chips based on the Alpha by Anonymous Coward · 2016-06-20 02:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

China may not have a lot of folks that can invent ... but they are incredibly good at trial and error/educated guessing
Do you see the problem with this sentence?
Re:Aern't most of China's chips based on the Alpha by neilo_1701D · 2016-06-20 03:33 · Score: 4, Insightful

So, not homegrown, more like "homecloned" from US chips and then enhanced.
In other words, the hard work was already done, and they just took it.
Think back to when Chips & Technologies made their own IBM PC-AT chipset (5 chips replacing the 63 the PC-AT used). It was nothing more than a clever clone... but once the clone happened it set in motion companies other than IBM to develop the standard. Think, for a moment, of the first 80386 system: the Compaq DeskPro 386. That was an original design, not cloned from IBM.
Yes, I completely agree. This is a "homecloned" system - for now. The next version is likely to have some innovations; the version following even more. Within 5 generations it will be it's own system.