Sunway TaihuLight, current fastest supercomputer in the world. File photo.

China's research for its first exascale computer has entered a crucial phase. Scientists led by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) are researching the core processor of a prototype exascale computing system.

Meng Xiangfei, Applications Department head of the National Supercomputer Center of China, said in an interview with Xinhua that the prototype will likely be released in 2018.

If successfully realized, the supercomputer will work at a speed of more than 1,000 PFlops, 10 times faster than the current fastest supercomputer in the world. That computer, China’s Sunway TaihuLight, works at a peak speed of 125 PFlops. The new machine’s processing power will also greatly propel research in aerospace, materials science and meteorology.

Many of the computer's facets, including its CPU, high-speed Internet communications system and operating system, are original technologies that were developed domestically.

Liang Jun, vice director of NRCPC, said that their research project will serve to verify the viability of exascale computer technologies. Since none have been built before, there are lingering uncertainties about the efficiency, reliability, energy cost and application of computers with exabyte levels of storage. In the next several years, Chinese computer scientists will work hard to explore the possibilities of exascale computers.