OnAugust5,2018,aftermorethantwoyearsofpainstakingefforts,China’sindependentlydevelopedSunwayE-classprototypecomputerofficiallybeganoperationattheNationalSupercomputerCenterinJinan,capitalofShandongProvince.
Coredevicessuchasprocessors,networkchipsets,storageandmanagementsystemsareallmadeinChina.SixapplicationsoftheprototypewereselectedfortheGordonBellAward,the“NobelPrizeofsupercomputing.”
Forthefirsttime,theSunwayE-classprototypecomputerestablishedanartificialintelligence(AI)softwareecologicalchainonaChinese-madesupercomputer.BasedonSunwaydeeplearninglibraryandframework,itfeaturesalarge-scaleAIapplicationforgamesystems,medicalimagerecognitionandmachinetranslation—inwhichitleadstheworldintermsofdatasize,parallelcomputingandtrainingspeed.
Sofar,theSunwayE-classprototypecomputerhascompleted35majorcomputingtasksin12fieldsincludingglobalclimatechange,oceanicnumericalsimulation,biomedicalsimulation,bigdataprocessingandbrain-likeintelligence.
Futureapplicationprospectsarebroad.Forexample,itcouldupgradetheaccuracyofweatherforecastingfromkilometerstometerstoevenpredicttheweatherconditionsofaspecificstadium.InthefieldofmedicalR&D,itcanhelpshortenthedevelopmentcyclefornewdrugstoafewweeksfromafewyears,whichwouldminimizethecostofnewdrugs.