Housed in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, the "Tianhe-One" is recognized as one of the world's fastest computing systems and is being widely used. What impact does it have on the daily lives of the people?
Machines like this, do not get any breaks.
"The Tianhe-One" is mainly used to serve our country's universities, research institutions, small-and medium-sized enterprises and to provide scientific computing services. It carries out 1,400 computing tasks per day. That means 1,400 scientific research teams are engaged with the Tianhe-One in science and technology research work," said Meng Xiangfei, head of the applications department, the National Center for Supercomputing.
Using a Linux-based operating system, the Tianhe-One is one of the few Petascale supercomputers in the world.
Using a Linux-based operating system, the Tianhe-One is one of the few Petascale supercomputers in the world.
Besides carrying out computations for scientific research such as petroleum exploration and aircraft design... it also understands human genetic code.
"If we want to check the health of a foetus, previously we had to diagnose by amniotic fluid, which has potential dangers. Now with gene technology, we just need to sample the blood, so the machine can generate new data and then send it to the Tianhe-One. We can build up information based on our experience and technology with the data," said Liu Guangming, director of the National Center for Supercomputing.
This data lays the foundation for the team's next innovative break through.
"We use big data to analyze the results of trends based on information collected from hundreds of thousands of people. Some people have genetic disorders. For example high blood pressure, what's the family background? What's the trend for a specific group? We can provide a consultation and precise treatment based on individual cases," Liu said.
Running at full capacity means a faster calculation is needed.
Scientists say that they're embarking on developing a new generation of super computers...
And as these machines are expected to be launched in 2020, it's possible to see computers that will run 200 times faster than the already advanced Tianhe-One.
