A single-day’s task load for Tianhe-1 might take a mainstream dual-core personal computer 160 years to complete, working non-stop – if it could even hold up that long. In terms of memory capacity, Tianhe-1 is equivalent to four national libraries, each with a storage capacity of 27 million volumes.
Tianhe-1 Backstory
A supercomputer consists of hundreds or even thousands of processors, which enable it to perform tasks of a size or complexity that no other single computer can. It is known for being the most capable and efficient with the largest memory capacity in the computer family.
The Petaflop used to be the benchmark for the process of improving the calculating speed of a supercomputer. The United States, for example, initiated a project for developing the Petaflop ability as early as the 1990s, but was unable to achieve it until 2007. As of November 2009 the fastest supercomputer in the world is the Cray XT5 Jaguar system based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. with an experimental performance of 1.759 Petaflops and peak performance that reaches 2.331 Petaflops.
Tianhe-1, successfully went into operation in October 2009, allowing China to become the second country with the capacity to produce a Petacomputer. The system cost around RMB 600 million to build, and was jointly financed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and the Tianjin Binhai New Area, a major economic development zone centered in the northern port city of Tianjin.
