Chinese Supercomputer Is Ranked World’s Second-Fastest, Challenging U.S. Dominance

New York Times ^ | 06/01/2010 | John Markoff

[DoughtyOne]

Good points. I agree.

[USMCPOP]

[pissant]

You can think the COMMUNIST APPEASING MORONS in the United States for giving China all the technology it needed for this.

[Colvin]

Good thing we bought all that plastic crap from Chinese owned companies. Our money flows to China, and their government can get way ahead of us.

[silverleaf]

Read Ann Coulter’s book “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” for the story of how the Clinton admin and its patrons transferred supercomputer technology to China

[silverleaf]

“High Crimes and Misdemeanors”

[Cheetahcat]

They should name it after its donors.

What is the computers name Bill or Hillary?

[ponder life]

U.S. companies are far ahead. The next generation of tech is assuring our supercomputers will be over 100 times faster in 8 years than anything the Chinese came make now.

For every one who over-hypes China's technological prowess, there is always someone who under estimates them. You talk as though the gap between the US and China will increase in 8 years. Yet, China is closing the gap. What makes you think that suddenly, it will be reversed?

My perspective of China is that China building the world's fastest computer shouldn't be a surprise, really. Someone has to have the fastest, why not China? And as far as the US having 1/2 the world's super computer, what makes you think China won't make that claim in a couple of decades?

This notion that when a non-Western country excells at something must be the result of something under handed or is part of an under handed goal is very Euro-Centric.

[indthkr]

"Do you really think they designed it?"

The Chinese most certainly steal technology, as do a number of other countries. But they are the most blatent at thumbing their nose at Global IP conventions. It's always cheaper to steal something than build it yourself.

That doesn't mean they can't do the design & development. Try a literature search, or check-out the names of the grad students at any major university engineering department. In some cases, their just stealing something that one of their other ex-pats developed.

[indthkr]

"R&D follows manufacturing. Who knew? We are reaping the rewards of our own stupidity as a nation."

A country that doesn't make things, doesn't really need to engineer them either. It is simply a logical migration of the supply chain.

For a preview of the future, one only need to recall that Great Britain once had their own space program - now it's just an amusing display in a museum in London.

[4rcane]

rofl, that reminds me of the win95 sucks song

[lmr]

You didn’t read my post. China is putting everything into having 1 really fast machine by basically copying our designs. We have way more than that. I think over 1/2 of the top 500 fastest supercomputers are our machines. You’re falling for propaganda. The Chinese are good at propaganda. Take a breather and recognize that not only are we light years ahead, they won’t be catching up anytime soon. The top spot is never owned by any machine for longer than 18 months. Ever heard of Moore’s law. Our new semiconductor tech is coming down the pipe. Intel, AMD, IBM and Cray will not be outdone and will blow the Chinese out of the water.

[ponder life]

I'm not advocating that China has caught up with the US by this one machine. What I am advocating, is that they are closing the gap, and this one machine is a demonstration of that. You seem to imply a "you ain't seen nuthin yet" approach to US science, in which the US will stomp on the throttle and leave China in the dust, i.e., the technological gap will actually widen. And I do not believe that will be true.

Do you honestly believe, in a couple of decades, with the rise of China, America will maintain half the world's top 500 computers? Didn't America, at one time have, all of the world's 500 fastest computers? And today, it is only half.

[TChris]

I think lmr has some good points to consider.

If you're going to compare countries, then you need to compare China's one supercomputer to the hundreds of American machines. The total computing power of this country isn't going to be approached by any other country in the forseeable future.

Also, this one machine in China was paid for and built with the resources of their government. American government supercomputers are built and bought as needed, not just because we can. IBM's Blue Gene left the world in the dust when it was finished, and was built with private funds and the resources of a single company.

If the American government and computer companies all combined forces to create their very best, I don't think there's any question who would stay in first place for a very long time.

So, really, America as a whole has nothing whatsoever to fear from this single achievement from China.

[ponder life]

So, really, America as a whole has nothing whatsoever to fear from this single achievement from China.

You're assuming all of China's resources combined produced one super computer and that is all China has, this one computer. Is that true? I don't believe so. And you're assuming America's super computer efforts had zero government backing. Is that true? I don't believe so on that count either.

Also, time and exponential growth, especially exponential growth in China, has a funny way of changing the balance of power. I can go through a slew of categories, starting with cell phones, to autos, to energy, etc., in which China had modest beginnings and then moved up the ranking of nations quickly. I have no doubt, this will be true of super computers in which China will, someday, have more than the US.

[TChris]

You're assuming all of China's resources combined produced one super computer and that is all China has, this one computer. Is that true? I don't believe so. And you're assuming America's super computer efforts had zero government backing. Is that true? I don't believe so on that count either.

Well, it's not black and white in either direction, and doesn't need to be. But, knowing the general nature of our two governments and the economic models we each follow, the generalizations are pretty accurate.

Socialist countries use tax/government resources to a greater degree for product development and business when compared to capitalist countries.

Remember, China had to copy technology which was created in America. Copying technology means you will always be behind.

The only way China could pull ahead would be to make a tectonic shift in culture away from copying the creations of others toward inventing and developing complex technologies independently. That's not anywhere on the horizon, as far as I can see.

[ponder life]

Socialist countries use tax/government resources to a greater degree for product development and business when compared to capitalist countries.

Is that true? The US government funds alot of basic research in places like MIT, Cal Tech, Berkeley, etc. Many of America's great laboratories and research centers are government funded. Overall, the US (both private and public) spends a higher percentage of their GDP on R&D than China. China is increasing her percentage of GDP in research and development to try and match the proportions in the developed world. The last resource I read on this, by 2020, China, despite increasing amounts on R&D, as a whole, will still spend less as a percentage of GDP on research and development than the US.

Remember, China had to copy technology which was created in America. Copying technology means you will always be behind.

I won't argue with you here. However, when one is behind, is it quicker to mimic your competitor or go through the R&D to reinvent the wheel. The Japanese auto industry didn't event everything that goes into a modern automobile (or the Germans for that matter). Yet, once acquiring automotive technologies that they didn't fully invent, they each went their own directions to create new know how and their own respective products. You and everyone out there know this and it isn't even necessary for me to even defend that. But it seems to always come up in an arguement.

The only way China could pull ahead would be to make a tectonic shift in culture away from copying the creations of others toward inventing and developing complex technologies independently. That's not anywhere on the horizon, as far as I can see.

I agree, there needs to be shift to pull ahead. But to catch up and come close, its not entirely necessary. However, the tectonic shift you are talking about, I believe, is already on its way.