An exascale computer is capable of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second.
Sunway TaihuLight, the world's fastest computer
When exascale computers become a reality, they will be able to complete a quintillion calculations per second and tackle incredibly complex mathematical and medical modelling tasks. According to Chinese officials, one of the first glimpses of exascale technology may arrive this year. The country is planning on developing a prototype 'super supercomputer' that would be ready before other competitors.
According to state media, developer Zhang Ting of China's National Supercomputer Center, said the prototype would be ready before 2017 is out.
"A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country's first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognised as the world's fastest in 2010," the Xinhua news agency reported Zhang as saying.
At present, it's not clear how advanced the 2017 prototype would be. WIRED has contacted China's National Supercomputer Center for clarification and will update this story when a response is received.
If successful, the creation of an exascale computer by China would cement its place as one of the leading computer manufacturers in the world.
It's no secret the country has been creating an exascale computer. In October 2016 scientists at the supercomputer centre said they had started developing one. They claimed an early version might be ready as soon as early 2018; the latest announcement implies work has progressed faster than expected.
China isn't the only country working on an exascale computer, though. In the US the Department of Energy is running the Exascale Computing Project, which is looking to increase on the petascale level computers that exist now. The project awarded $39.8 million of grants to partners developing the technology necessary to build an exascale computer by 2023.
"At 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second, exascale supercomputers will be able to quickly analyse massive volumes of data and more realistically simulate the complex processes and relationships behind many of the fundamental forces of the universe," the US government says on its website.
At the moment China is leading the way by owning the most powerful supercomputer in the world, the Sunway TaihuLight, which has a processing speed of 93 petaflops. At its peak, the computer can perform 93,000 trillion calculations per second. In total, 167 of the most powerful 500 computers in the world reside in China.
The US is developing a number of supercomputers that would be capable of beating the Sunway TaihuLight – a 200 petaflop machine called Summit is being developed at the Oak Ridge National Lab and is due to arrive in 2018. Japan is also heavily investing in supercomputing technology and has said it will spend 19.5 billion yen (£139 million) on a 130 petaflop computer.
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