China Willing to Continue Cooperation With Intel on Fastest Supercomputer

Previously, media reported that the US government had blocked the transfer of US companies' technology to four Chinese technical centers associated with Tianhe-2 suspecting that the supercomputer, powered by Intel-produced microprocessor chips, was being used to simulate nuclear explosions.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China is willing to continue its cooperation with the US Intel Corporation on the development of the Tianhe-2 (Milky Way-2) supercomputer but intends to create its own capabilities to produce all the necessary system components, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology Cao Jianlin told Sputnik.

"Of course, we would like to cooperate with Intel, but if they are not ready, we can handle the task we are facing by ourselves," Cao said.

He added that China was developing its own microprocessor chips and other necessary equipment for the supercomputer.

"Of course, now we can not provide the supercomputer with only China-produced equipment, however, we are working in this direction," the vice minister said.

He pointed out that Russia and China faced a common challenge of needing high-tech import substitution and could support each other in this respect.

According to the TOP500 project, which lists the 500 most powerful supercomputers ranked by their performance, Tianhe-2 developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology and located in National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou is the fastest system in the world.