For the first time in a long time, the release of the Top500 list was exciting. While computing nerds all over the world will habitually pore over every inch of the bi-annual benchmark results, it’s fair to say that the list has lost its magic owing to geopolitical wrangling.
China had opted not to submit machines out of an unofficial protest against tighter US export controls for semiconductors. But this latest list was something of a revelation: China was back, and back with a vengeance.
Out of seemingly nowhere, LineShine (or Lingsheng) shot to the top of the list, bringing an end to El Capitan’s near two-year reign as the world’s most powerful supercomputer.
The last time a Chinese supercomputer made its debut and subsequently topped the list was in 2017, when Sunway TaihuLight knocked fellow Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-2 (also known as Heavenriver-2 or Milky Way 2) off its perch.
To put the scale of China’s return into perspective, TaihuLight achieved a benchmark score of 93 petaflops when it took first place on the Top500. LineShine came in with 2.198 exaflops of performance – roughly 23-times the computing power of its ancestor.
