Tianhe-1A, Milestone for China's Supercomputer Industry

  China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer is the world's fastest – a proud milestone for China's supercomputer industry. Tianhe-1A, which can perform 2.57 quadrillion computing operations per second, topped the 36th edition of the World Top 500 Supercomputers list, the first time a Chinese supercomputer has taken the honor. Tianhe-1A has been successfully used to survey mines, forecast weather and design high-end machinery.

  There is still a cavern between China and developed countries in terms of information technology. According to the newly released list, more than 270 of the world's supercomputers are in the United States while over 120 are in Europe. Only 41 reside in China. More than 77 percent of the powerful machines were developed by the U.S. companies IBM, HP and CRAY.