中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座 (2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

China Takes Supercomputer Crown from U.S. for First Time Since 2017 (2/2)

A supercomputer in Shenzhen was declared the world’s fastest. It uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called graphics processing units.

The NYT - By Don Clark - Reporting from San Francisco

June 23, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

(continue)

U.S. national labs, which are the main buyers of some of the largest supercomputers, are eager to use A.I. to accelerate aspects of their scientific work. So they are adopting more of these less precise calculations, along with the 64-bit variety.

Though U.S. companies have historically dominated the ranks of the very largest supercomputers, foreign systems have sometimes vaulted to the top. A system in Japan, for example, ranked No. 1 on the list from 2020 to 2022.

“There’s a lot of talk that America is the only country capable of these systems,” said Addison Snell, an analyst at Intersect360 Research, a firm tracking the sector. “Then you find that other companies have capabilities, too.”

Powerful systems from China and Japan have regularly spurred the Department of Energy and other U.S. agencies to push for more funding for supercomputers. In November, the Trump administration started the Genesis Mission, which aims to exploit supercomputers at U.S. national labs, along with private companies, to supercharge A.I. and scientific research.

GPUs, primarily developed by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, have been a critical weapon in the recent supercomputer race. These chips excel in doing many chores simultaneously, including so-called vector calculations used in science and matrix multiplication at the heart of many A.I. tasks.

When U.S. officials limited China’s access to GPUs and other powerful chips, as well as restricting exports of some machines for manufacturing the most advanced semiconductors, that caused it “to invest in developing architectures and technology to effectively have supercomputers that are at the same level as the U.S.’s highest-performing systems,” Dr. Dongarra said.

China’s LineShine system does not separate the traditional jobs of microprocessors and GPUs, as most high-end systems do. Instead, it builds in GPU-style tasks with specialized circuitry that accelerates matrix and vector calculations. That ability is embedded in chips that have a total of nearly 14 million computing cores, or tiny electronic brains, installed in 90 hardware cabinets.

These chips are an original design based on a set of instructions licensed by Arm Holdings, a British company that is controlled by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Arm’s technology is best known for powering smartphones but has lately been adapted by Nvidia, Amazon, Qualcomm and others for use in data centers.

Arm has long operated in China. “Arm operates globally, including in China, in compliance with applicable export control laws and regulations,” a company spokeswoman said.

LineShine’s designers, who are supercomputer veterans in China, have not disclosed details about which company manufactured the chips or the level of chip production technology used, Dr. Dongarra said.

He and other experts have long thought that China had systems capable of a No. 1 ranking, but laboratories there had not recently submitted test results.

“It doesn’t surprise me that there is a Chinese machine capable of being No. 1,” Mr. Snell said. “The surprise is that they wanted the acknowledgment.”

Dr. Dongarra, who wrote a detailed report on the new system, was told while visiting China that the system had been made without government funding, so the designers felt it was permissible to submit tests for the Top500 ranking, he said.

The Shenzhen scientists have also sought recognition for the new machine through 14 submissions for the Gordon Bell Prize, which promotes solving sophisticated problems in science, Dr. Dongarra said. Three systems are finalists for that award, and three for a related prize in climate science.

LineShine has been used for projects like a sophisticated simulation of Earth, including atmosphere, ocean, land and ice components, as well as a complex simulation of the human brain, according to Dr. Dongarra’s report.

Translation

中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座 (2/2)

深圳一台超級電腦被宣佈為世界上速度最快的超級電腦。它只使用標準微處理器，而不是被稱為圖形處理器（GPU）的專用晶片

（繼續）

美國國家實驗室是部分最大型超級電腦的主要買家，它們渴望利用人工智能來加速其研究工作。因此，它們正在採用更多精度較低的計算方法，亦有用64位元計算方法。

儘管美國公司歷來在最大型超級電腦領域佔據主導地位，但外國系統有時也能躍居榜首。例如，日本的一套系統在2020年至2022年期間一直位居榜首。

追踪該領域的公司Intersect360 Research的分析師Addison Snell表示: “很多人都說美國是唯一能夠擁有這類系統的國家”; “但後來你會發現，其他公司也具備這種能力。”

來自中國和日本的強大系統，不斷驅使美國能源部和其他機構爭取更多資金用於建立超級電腦。去年11月，特朗普政府啟動了「創世紀計劃」（Genesis Mission），旨在利用美國國家實驗室以及私人公司的超級電腦，大幅強化人工智能和科學研究。

GPU（圖形處理器），主要由英偉達（Nvidia）和AMD（超微半導體）公司開發，一直是近期超級電腦競賽的關鍵武器。這些晶片擅長同時處理多項任務，包括科學中使用的向量運算以及許多人工智能任務的核心 - 矩陣乘法。

Dongarra博士表示，當美國官員限制中國取得GPU和其他高性能晶片，並限制部分用於製造最先進半導體的設備出口時，中國「被迫投資開發架構和技術，以打造與美國最高性能係統性能相當的超級電腦」。

中國的LineShine系統不像大多數高階系統那樣，將微處理器和GPU的傳統功能分開。相反，它內建了GPU式任務，並配備了專門的電路來加速矩陣和向量計算。這種能力被嵌入到總共擁有近1400萬個運算核心（或稱為微型電子大腦）的晶片中，這些晶片安裝在90個硬體機櫃中。

這些晶片是基於Arm Holdings授權的一套指令而設計的。 Arm Holdings是一家英國公司，由日本軟銀集團控股。 Arm的技術最廣為人知的應用領域是智能型手機，但最近也被英偉達、亞馬遜、高通等公司應用於數據庫。

Arm公司長期以來一直在中國開展業務。 該公司一位發言人表示:「Arm在全球範圍內運營，包括在中國，並遵守所有適用的出口管制法律法規」。

Dongarra博士表示，LineShine的設計者是中國超級電腦領域的資深人士，他們沒有透露晶片的製造商或所使用的晶片生產技術水平等細節。

他和一些專家一直認為中國擁有能夠躋身世界第一的系統，但中國實驗室近期沒有提交測試結果。

Snell先生說: “中國有能夠排名第一的機器並不令我驚訝” ， “令人驚訝的是，他們竟然想要獲得認可。”

曾撰寫過一份關於這套新系統的詳細報告的Dongarra博士說，他在中國訪問期間得知，該系統並非由政府資助研發，因此設計者認為可以提交測試結果以參與Top500排名。

Dongarra博士表示深圳科學家也透過14項申請角逐Gordon Bell獎，力求讓這台新型機器獲得認可。該獎項旨在表彰解決複雜科學難題的傑出成果。目前已有三套系統入圍該獎項的最終候選名單，另有三套系統入圍氣候科學領域的相關獎項。

Dongarra博士的報告指出，LineShine已被用於多個項目，例如對地球進行複雜的模擬包括大氣、海洋、陸地和冰蓋，以及對人腦進行複雜的模擬。

So, China takes back the computing crown from the United States. It is the LineShine, a massive computing system declared to be the fastest in the world. Besides raw speed, the system stands out because it uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called GPU. Apparently, China can use ordinary computer chips to make high speed computers at a low cost.