China Is Getting Secretive About Its Supercomputers 28
For decades, American and Chinese scientists collaborated on supercomputers. But Chinese scientists have become more secretive as the U.S. has tried to hinder China's technological progress, and they have stopped participating altogether in a prominent international supercomputing forum. From a report: The withdrawal marked the end of an era and created a divide that Western scientists say will slow the development of AI and other technologies as countries pursue separate projects. The new secrecy also makes it harder for the U.S. government to answer a question it deems essential to national security: Does the U.S. or China have faster supercomputers? Some academics have taken it upon themselves to hunt for clues about China's supercomputing progress, scrutinizing research papers and cornering Chinese peers at conferences.
Supercomputers have become central to the U.S.-China technological Cold War because the country with the faster supercomputers can also hold an advantage in developing nuclear weapons and other military technology. "If the other guy can use a supercomputer to simulate and develop a fighter jet or weapon 20% or even 1% better than yours in terms of range, speed and accuracy, it's going to target you first, and then it's checkmate," said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis at Rand, a think tank. The forum that China recently stopped participating in is called the Top500, which ranks the world's 500 fastest supercomputers. While the latest ranking, released in June, says the world's three fastest computers are in the U.S., the reality is probably different.
Supercomputers have become central to the U.S.-China technological Cold War because the country with the faster supercomputers can also hold an advantage in developing nuclear weapons and other military technology. "If the other guy can use a supercomputer to simulate and develop a fighter jet or weapon 20% or even 1% better than yours in terms of range, speed and accuracy, it's going to target you first, and then it's checkmate," said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis at Rand, a think tank. The forum that China recently stopped participating in is called the Top500, which ranks the world's 500 fastest supercomputers. While the latest ranking, released in June, says the world's three fastest computers are in the U.S., the reality is probably different.
Narrative??? (Score:2)
"Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense policy bill that would prohibit the Department of Defense (DOD) from funding any U.S. university that has a research collaboration with China."
Isn't this just a result of U.S. Policy to those doing research in Chinese Academia?
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As long as it doesn't block the fans.
chinaaa (Score:2)
China's Sunway TaihuLight pulled ahead of the fastest US supercomputers in 2017's Top500. That was a long time ago and many IBM and HPE systems since.
Not Difficult (Score:1)
There's nobody left in America with a tech job. What supercomputers?
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
aww shame (Score:2)
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guess those alphabet agencies will just have to work to earn all those tax dollars.
The Top500 list never included all the top supercomputers. There are no systems from NSA or from private corporations (like oil companies). Even some systems that traditionally would have been included didn't make the list, like Blue Waters.
The Top500 list is somewhat useful for advancing the state of the art, but it's most useful for bragging. Having the #1 system is often a matter of being willing to spend the money. And since the benchmark is LINPACK, it's not clear that spending all that money trans
Not rocket science (Score:2)
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Around 2003 we were trying to get our uni into the Top500. We eventually got there and our only competitors were Universities and companies in China. Not a single US entity was above us until you got closer to the Top 50.
The USA really wants (Score:2, Interesting)
Here's what the USA really wants: To 'unfriend' the expansionist imperialist that will soon interrupt its own world hegemony. China is challenging international law, building resource/military/intelligence alliances and ignoring the demands of the 'world police': Conflict is inevitable.
So the USA, is once again giving its military-industrial complex purpose and preparing for war: It's against an economic equal, something the USA hasn't faced in several decades. The USA needs to know they have the tec
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You're funny talking about "challenging international law" when the USA supports an ethnic cleanser that has been condemned by the ICJ and moreover has more UN resolution condemnations for human rights violations than all other countries in the world combined.
The USA is the one that wars against those that didn't attack it and supports evil regimes including ones of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide. I'll be no slashdot reader knows how many proxy wars the USA has going right now without looking.
Checkmate? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Quick examples: Gee, why did we invade Iraq even though they had nothing to do with 9/11? Gee, why did we stay in Afghanistan for so long? Gee, why did we leave billions of dollars worth of equipment in Afghanistan when w
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Presumably paid for by one of the suppliers of supercomputers to the US.
First it was Loongson MIPS, now it's DEC Alpha (Score:2)
First it was genuine Intel Xeon, then it was Loongson MIPS, and now it's a derivative DEC Alpha clone.
"Indigenous" processors these are not.
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And don't forget the Power Mac G4 [youtube.com]...
Not surprising (Score:1)
Why would they show their hand to the rest of the World about any advancements in Super-Computing and / or Machine Learning ?
Especially when the Western World is trying to choke off their development of both technologies.
In related news, I believe there was a story a few days ago talking about how much power generation China is installing. Given the :D
prediction of how much power Machine Learning / Super-Computing will utilize, I think we can begin to understand the why behind it
If true, this is where the
80's thinking (Score:2)
Nuclear weapon development is wasted. We crossed the boundaries of "too big" a long time ago.
The ability to produced massive numbers of EM shielded semi-autonomous drones capable of performing military operations as swarms is modern warfare. Carriers and nuclear subs are for the losers. China will win any real war by rapidly producing millions of drones, each one exactly as dangerous as needed and swarming their opponents until resis
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Yup. The future of warfare will be precisely targeted "nano drones" and genetically engineered viruses. You don't need to take out the enemies army. You just need to take out it's leaders - as far down the chain of command as necessary. Think of a small swarm of midge sized drones carrying something like poloniium or a live virus culture. All it would take is one to either inject the target(s), or surreptitiously deposit something in a drink/meal. Reminds me of the Chinese saying "cut off the head of
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Hypocrites (Score:2)