NEWS BRIEFS
Beijing, CHINA — China has developed a supercomputer capable of performing 384 billion calculations per second, official media reported. State Development and Planning Commission minister Zeng Peiyan, rolling out the computer at the Beijing High-Speed Computer Application Center on Tuesday, announced China is only the third country, after the United States and Japan, to develop a supercomputer, according to a report in the People’s Daily. Zeng noted the machine, dubbed the “Invincible Might,” ranked 48 in speed among the world’s supercomputers.
The world’s fastest supercomputer is International Business Machine’s ASCI White, which performs 12.3 trillion calculations per second, according to the company. China hopes the new computer will aid in scientific pursuits such as gene cloning, earthquake prediction, oil exploration and weather forecasting, the People’s Daily said. The newspaper said a second supercomputer center is slated to open in China’s commercial capital Shanghai in November.
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