China's supercomputer Tianhe-2 is now the world's fastest - Firstpost

Would you like to make Firstpost your default homepage?   Yes | No A Chinese university has built the world's fastest supercomputer, almost doubling the speed of the US machine that previously claimed the top spot and underlining China's rise as a science and technology powerhouse. The semiannual TOP500 listing of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday says the Tianhe-2 developed by the National University of Defense Technology in central China's Changsha city is capable of sustained computing of 33.86 petaflops per second. That's the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second. Representational Image. Reuters The Tianhe-2, which means Milky Way-2, knocks the US Energy Department's Titan machine off the No 1 spot. It achieved 17.59 petaflops per second. Supercomputers are used for complex work such as modeling weather systems, simulating nuclear explosions and designing jetliners. It's the second time a Chinese computer has been named the world's fastest. In November 2010, the Tianhe-2′s predecessor, Tianhe-1A, had that honor before Japan's K computer overtook it a few months later on the TOP500 list, a ranking curated by three computer scientists at universities in the US and Germany. The Tianhe-2 shows how China is leveraging rapid economic growth and sharp increases in research spending to join the United States, Europe and Japan in the global technology elite. "Most of the features of the system were developed in China, and they are only using Intel for the main compute part," TOP500 editor Jack Dongarra, who toured the Tianhe-2 facility in May, said in a news release. "That is, the interconnect, operating system, front-end processors and software are mainly Chinese." Associated Press Firstpost encourages open discussion and debate, but please adhere to the rules below, before posting. Comments that are found to be in violation of any one or more of the guidelines will be automatically deleted: Personal attacks/name calling will not be tolerated. This applies to comments directed at the author, other commenters and other politicians/public figures Please do not post comments that target a specific community, caste, nationality or religion. While you do not have to use your real name, any commenters using any Firstpost writer's name will be deleted, and the commenter banned from participating in any future discussions. Comments will be moderated for abusive and offensive language. Lok Sabha polls 2014: Back to basics for Congress and BJP With the playing field level, from now on it will be a battle of strategies for the Congress and the BJP Chidu's 'Ferrari' of reforms has an autorickshaw engine A slew of economic reforms has been promised this month, but one should not expect anything more than fancy footwork from the FM. From a fed-up, die-hard fan: An open letter to SRK Forget all this surrogacy business. The reason we love Shah Rukh Khan is that he's been one of Bollywood's smarter actors. But of late, SRK's been a bit disappointing, complains a fed-up, die-hard fan. Dhoni has Ganguly's touch but with a difference Rohit, Kohli, Raina, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, Umesh – that's the core of the Indian team today and perhaps it wouldn't be wrong to say that they are Dhoni's boys. Vajpayee, Advani, Modi: Every leader has given Hindutva a twist From Vajpayee to Advani to Modi –the Sangh Parivar has come a long way, presenting before India every few years a Hindutva face rendered presentable through a shrewd makeover Why Nitish 'really' dumped the Modi-led BJP While prima facie it might seem to be a clash of two strong personalities i.e. Modi and Kumar, there is much more to the split than that. 3 Indias at war: Sensex India, Maoist India, and Bharat The current tensions in India can directly be traced to three visions of India – one of which will involve breaking the country Last man standing: Why it's easy to feel sorry for Misbah Sympathy for a Pakistani cricketer, especially a batsman, is a novel emotion for those of us coming from the 90s. Fear of the unknown grips the BJP in Bihar Although the party is maintaining a brave face, the eventuality of a split has left many leaders on tenterhooks. In Mamata's Bengal: Zero tolerance for rape or protesting against rape? Bengal tops the list in violence against women. There have been several reports of gang rape in the past few weeks. The Mamata government has taken quick and stern action – against the women protesting the rapes in front of the CM's residence. Food security: For poor's sake, jholawalas must speak up The subsidy to the rich accounts for more than 7 percent of the GDP while that for the poor, with the food security act, would account for 1.1 percent. Patients get HIV in Assam hospital after blood transfusion, panic spreads Many patients who were administered blood from the same blood bank fear the worst. Why a BJP-JD(U) split will be good for India Neither UPA nor NDA is an alliance. And the BJP and JD(U) were mere power-sharers, not allies. To grow, alliances have to be built around principles not just power-sharing Chidu takes comfort in Fitch upgrade, but where are real reforms? At a press conference, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, however, did not reveal any concrete steps but promised more reforms by August. He said the rupee's decline is in line with that of the currencies of other countries with high current account deficit like India. Why cutting interest rates will have little impact on industrial production The index of industrial production (IIP), a measure of the industrial activity in the country, grew by a meagre 2% in April 2013, in comparison to the same period during 2012. The index was expected to grow by around 2.4% (source: India: Weak growth and sticky retail inflation. Sonal Varma and Aman Mohunta, Nomura). In [...] Why 'Sir' Ravindra Jadeja is a people's genius If one was simply to go by numbers, young and jolly Jadeja is on course to be a great. That's not overrating him — it's the simple logic of statistics one cannot argue against. The Aurangzeb factor: 5 lessons from Modi-Advani tussle Political parties need to have a process for electing leaders. This problem relates more to cadre-based parties such as BJP and CPM. Why 55-60 to the dollar may be the new normal for rupee A drop in the US dollar index does not seem to help the rupee; this shows that the Indian currency seems to be marching to its own gloomy beat. Critics split on Apple iOS 7: Hideous, unoriginal or a thing of pure beauty? The new design has sparked debates over whether Apple stole the design from Android or Windows 8 or just created an unholy union of the two. We take a look at what the critics are saying: Is Putin the Salman Khan of international politics? Is Vladimir Putin the Salman Khan of world politics? Our new columnist, stand-up comedian Gursimran Khamba pontificates. Advani wins: No free hand for Narendra Modi just yet What was the senior leader's specific problem? Well, one is the indecent hurry in which Modi's is being shoved down the throats of other leaders in the party. Obama's second innings? As a junior engineer in govt service in India Is Barack Obama about to sit for an exam for a junior level engineer in India? A man in Rajasthan says he's got an admit card with Obama's picture on it from the Staff Selection Commission. Actually on second thought that might not be such a bad second career for the President. How US industries are trying to use 'treaties' to arm twist India US companies are blatantly violating international agreements or purely lying, when they accuse India of using TRIPS flexibilities. Americans have spoken the same language against other countries such as Brazil and Thailand, but failed. via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFJoYexNNMDd9sUdTR9YCUsXmqPQw&url=http://www.firstpost.com/tech/chinas-supercomputer-tianhe-2-is-now-the-worlds-fastest-882381.html

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2954071