China Now Dominates Top500 Supercomputers List

Each year the list of the fastest supercomputers in the world is compiled. That list also looks at how many of the fastest supercomputers are on the list from each country. Traditionally China has had the top machine on the list, and it has that top spot on the most recent list as well.

However, the US has traditionally had the most supercomputers on the overall list, but that has changed. China now has the most supercomputers on the Top500 list. China had 159 supercomputers on the Top500 list six months ago, and on the most recent list that has grown to 202.

The US, by comparison, dropped from 169 supercomputers on the Top500 list to only 144. China has also taken the top spot in terms of total performance of its supercomputers. Supercomputing power is closely tied to industrial, academic, and military capabilities.

The Top500 list is released twice per year in conjunction with the annual Supercomputer conference. The data is compiled by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, and a cloud-computing company called Prometeus reports CNET.