CHINA-S&T: SUPER COMPUTER
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Concerns were voiced regarding China's 'Tianhe-2' billion-yuan supercomputer, reputed to be the most powerful in the world, in a meeting with Guangzhou's Deputy Mayor, Wang Dong, on June 30, 2014, as some researchers said its benefits are limited by its high operating cost and lack of software. The electricity bill for the machine sited at the Sun Yat-sen University campus in Guangzhou is between 400,000 yuan (HK$485,400) and 600,000 yuan a day. Another obstacle is the lack of software. Tianhe-2 has been used for railway design, earthquake simulation, astrophysics and genetic studies. Chi Xuebin, Deputy Director of the Computer Network and Information Centre under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said "It is at the world's frontier in terms of calculation capacity, but the function of the supercomputer is still way behind the ones in the US and Japan".
Tinahe-2 was developed by the National University of Defence Technology at a cost of 2.5 billion yuan, and began trial operations in April.
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