China Dominates TOP500 List and Pushes U.S. To An All-Time Low Ranking
The 50th TOP500 list has revealed that China has overtaken U.S. in having the most supercomputers in the list of the world's fastest systems. Furthermore, U.S. has fallen to an all-time low since the list's conception, with the Titan supercomputer coming up at fifth place.
According to the list, China has dominated the U.S. in accounting for the fastest supercomputers in the word at 202 compared to the latter's 143. It has also won in the aggregate performance category, with China claiming 35.4 percent of the TOP500 flops, while U.S. takes second place at 29.6 percent.
In the past six months, U.S. has led the TOP500 list with 169 supercomputers compared to China's 160. However, the latter half of the year has proven that China is investing more in their research and development departments as U.S. has fallen to second place. Considering that the Asian country has been accounting for nearly 20 percent of the department's expenditures, it should be no surprise that Japan finished in third place at 35 supercomputers, Germany with 20, France with 18, and the U.K. with 15.
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"At the very high end - the systems in the top 10 - those are there for two reasons," TOP500's co-founder Erich Strohmaier told BBC. "One is simply the prestige attached with [being in the lead] in a market that used to be a prime example of US technology dominance. The other is to do with scientific exploration and national security - a lot of these systems are used for calculations related to weapons systems."
Another notable comparison between the two countries is their top supercomputers. China's Sunway TaihuLight maintains the top spot, as it is capable of performing at a maximum of 93 petaflops. Meanwhile, U.S. Titan is only capable of churning out 17.6 petaflops. As to how the U.S. will incite a reversal in the list, researchers will have to wait and see.
