Milky Way One supercomputer (file photo)

According to the latest list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers released Nov. 18, 2009, the "Milky Way One" ranked fifth in the world and first in Asia. "Milky Way One" is China's first teraflop supercomputer cluster system, developed by the Computer Science Department of National Defense University.

A Chinese supercomputer in the top ranks indicates that China already has high-performance calculation technology and becomes the second country with the ability to develop a teraflop supercomputer system.

The International Top500 organization releases world's supercomputers list twice annually based on Linpack testing. This organization aims to promote exchange and cooperation in supercomputing fields and spread its application.

"Milky Way One" is China's first teraflop supercomputer system, with a peak speed of 1,206 trillion functions per second. Linpack testing reaches 563.1 trillion functions per second.

Advanced supercomputing technology is a symbol of technological competitiveness especially in the information age. Among the top ten listed, there are 9 American produced supercomputers and the "Milky Way One". Experts believe that "Milky Way One" is a way of showing the uprising status of China's advanced computer technology and it will provide solutions for critical economic and technological issues.

As the core processor of National Supercomputing Tianjin Center, "Milky Way One" is expected to provide technological support for petroleum exploration data processing, bio-medical research, aviation equipment development, resources exploration, satellite remote sensing data processing, financial engineering, weather forecasting, climate prediction, marine data analysis, earthquake prevention, new material development and other important areas.

Editor: Guo Changdong Source: People's Daily Online