Fugaku Retains Official #1 Spot on TOP500

The Fugaku supercomputer retains the official #1 position on the TOP500 list, as announced at the recent SC21 conference, despite exascale-level systems reportedly in use in China. The Fugaku system, which is installed in Kobe, Japan, recorded a High-Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark score of 442 Pflop/s, or three times the performance of the #2 Summit system. 

Summit, which is an IBM-built system installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, remains the fastest system in the United States.

Additional details about two previously reported Chinese exascale ( >1 exaflops HPL) systems emerged at the conference, but HPL results for these systems were not submitted to the TOP500 so they were not included in the formal list.

According to HPCWire, David Kahaner, HPC expert and founder of the Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP), says two exascale systems are now operational in China, with a third under development:

  • A new Sunway machine, called OceanLight, delivers a purported 1.05 exaflops Linpack out of 1.3 exaflops theoretical peak. 
  • Tianhe-3, in the city of Tianjin, offers an estimated 1.7 exaflops peak performance and just over 1.3 exaflops on Linpack. 
  • The third projected exascale system, under development by Sugon for The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, has been delayed.

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