But Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee professor who co-founded the Top500, told the Journal that China has computers which are faster than the US machines rated as the best in the world in June, but they “just haven’t submitted the results” because Beijing fears the US might take even tougher action if they brag about their supercomputing abilities.

Five Chinese supercomputing organizations were put on a US blacklist in 2019 for using their machines for military and nuclear purposes, which means US companies can no longer sell them chips and other parts, and they have to rely on locally made processors, it said, adding that a scientific paper last year described China’s Sunway supercomputer as having 39 million cores (parts of chips that do processing), which was four times the number of cores that Frontier, the top rated US supercomputer, has.

Tianhe-2 (abbreviation: TH-2) is a set of heterogeneous supercomputers developed by the National University of Defense Technology of the People's Liberation Army and is the successor of the Tianhe-1 supercomputer.Tianhe-2 has a peak speed (Rpeak) of 54,902.4 TFLOPS (tera floating-point operations) per second and a sustained speed (Rmax) of 33,862.7TFLOPS.

Era Background: At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, global information technology was developing rapidly. The importance of high-performance computing in numerous fields such as scientific research, engineering, meteorology, and finance was becoming increasingly prominent. All countries were actively investing in the research and development of high-performance computers to enhance their competitiveness and innovation capabilities in related fields. The economic and social development and scientific research progress in China also generated a strong demand for high-performance computing. For example, medium- and long-term weather forecasting, simulated wind tunnel experiments, 3D seismic data processing, as well as the development of new weapons and the aerospace industry, all required more powerful computing capabilities for support.

Corporate Background: By the end of the 1990s, Lenovo Group had already achieved remarkable success in the fields of personal computers and servers, accumulating certain technical strength and research and development experience. In 1998, Lenovo entered the server field and began to engage in the technical research and development and product development related to high-performance computing, laying the foundation for the development of ShenTeng 1800.

Technical Background: ShenTeng 1800 adopted a series of advanced technical architectures and design concepts. It was the result of Lenovo's long-term technical accumulation and innovation in the field of high-performance computing. Its system architecture had highly efficient parallel computing capabilities, which could fully utilize the collaborative working advantages of a large number of processors, achieving a measured performance of 1.046 trillion floating-point operations per second, reaching a leading level in China and an advanced level internationally at that time.

Industry Impact: The birth of ShenTeng 1800 marked the beginning of China's large IT enterprises' entry into the research and development of high-performance computing. It broke the situation where high-performance computers were mainly developed by scientific research institutions before, promoting the popularization and application of high-performance computing technology in China. Its appearance also enhanced China's position in the global field of high-performance computing. In the TOP500 ranking of global high-performance computers announced in November of that year, ShenTeng 1800 ranked 43rd. It was the first time that a high-end computer system produced by a Chinese enterprise had been shortlisted in the TOP500, injecting new vitality into the development of China's high-performance computer industry.

1. Here are some key features of the Tianhe-2 supercomputer:

2. Performance: Tianhe-2 has a peak performance of 54.9 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second) and a sustained performance of 33.86 petaflops.

3. Architecture: It is composed of 16,000 processors, including 8,000 Intel Xeon processors and 8,000 NUDT-designed "Matrix-2000" co-processors. The Matrix-2000 is a many-core processor designed specifically for high-performance computing tasks.

4. Energy Efficiency: Tianhe-2 is also recognized for its energy efficiency, achieving a performance of 1.9 gigaflops per watt.

5. Applications: The supercomputer is used for a wide range of applications, including weather forecasting, genomics, drug design, and materials science.

6. Significance: Tianhe-2 was a significant milestone in China's supercomputing efforts, showcasing the country's ability to develop and deploy high-performance computing systems that are competitive on the global stage.

7. Location: It is housed at the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, China.

Tianhe-2 was succeeded by "Sunway TaihuLight" (also known as "Shenwei·TaihuLight") as the world's fastest supercomputer, but it remains an important part of China's supercomputing history and continues to contribute to various scientific and research projects.

“天河二号”是由中国国防科技大学（NUDT）研制的超级计算机。它在2013年6月至2016年6月期间，根据TOP500榜单（根据性能排名的超级计算机列表），是世界上最快的超级计算机。

以下是“天河二号”超级计算机的一些关键特性：

1. 性能：天河二号的峰值性能达到54.9千万亿次（每秒千万亿次计算），持续性能为33.86千万亿次。

2. 架构：它由16000个处理器组成，包括8000个英特尔至强处理器和8000个国防科技大学设计的“矩阵-2000”协处理器。矩阵-2000是一种专为高性能计算任务设计的众核处理器。

3. 能效：天河二号还因其能效而受到认可，实现了每瓦特1.9千万亿次的性能。

4. 应用：这台超级计算机被用于广泛的应用，包括天气预报、基因组学、药物设计和材料科学。

5. 意义：天河二号是中国超级计算努力的一个重要里程碑，展示了中国开发和部署具有全球竞争力的高性能计算系统的能力。

6. 位置：它位于中国广州的国家超级计算中心。

“天河二号”被“神威·太湖之光”（也称为“申威·太湖之光”）取代，成为世界上最快的超级计算机，但它仍然是中国超级计算历史的重要组成部分，并继续为各种科学和研究项目做出贡献。

Scientific Research

In fields like meteorology, it can handle complex climate models. For instance, predicting long - term weather patterns and climate change trends by processing massive amounts of meteorological data, which helps in early - warning systems for extreme weather. In astronomy, it can be used for simulating the evolution of galaxies and analyzing the data from astronomical observations, enabling us to understand the universe better.

Engineering Design

For aircraft and automobile design, it can perform computational fluid dynamics simulations. This helps in optimizing the aerodynamic design of vehicles to improve fuel efficiency and performance. In the design of large - scale infrastructure like bridges and dams, it can calculate stress and strain under different conditions to ensure structural safety.

Data - Intensive Applications

It is used for data mining in various industries. For example, in the business field, analyzing market trends and customer behavior from large amounts of sales data. In the medical field, it can handle the analysis of genetic data to assist in disease diagnosis and drug development. Overall, Tianhe - 1 has played a crucial role in promoting the development of science, engineering, and data - driven decision - making.

The development and deployment of Tianhe-3 marks China's technological progress and independent innovation capabilities in the field of supercomputers. It will provide strong technical support for the country's scientific and technological innovation and the implementation of major strategies.