中國成超級計算機最高產(chǎn)國，建造速度遠超美國

America is now home to the world’s speediest supercomputer. But the new list of the 500 swiftest machines underlines how much faster China is building them.

美國現(xiàn)在擁有全球最快的超級計算機。但新出爐的全球超級電腦500強榜單突顯出中國建造超級計算機的速度遠超美國。

The list, published Monday, shows the Chinese companies and government pulling away as the most prolific producer of supercomputers, with 206 of the top 500. American corporations and the United States government designed and made 124 of the supercomputers on the list.

周一發(fā)布的榜單顯示，中國企業(yè)和政府制造的超級計算機在500強榜單中占206臺，逐漸成為最高產(chǎn)的超級計算機制造者。上榜的超級計算機中124臺由美國企業(yè)和政府設(shè)計與制造。

For years, the United States dominated the supercomputer market. But two years ago, China pulled even on the Top 500 list. China moved decisively ahead last fall and extended the gap in the latest tally.

美國多年主導(dǎo)超級計算機市場。但兩年前，中國在500強榜單中追平美國。中國去年秋天果斷繼續(xù)推進，在最新榜單中擴大了與美國的差距。

Making the most powerful supercomputers is regarded as one measure of a nation’s technical prowess, even if they are a rarefied niche of technology. Countries and companies have increasingly deployed the machines in a wider range of tasks in fields including medicine, new materials and energy technology.

制造最強大的超級計算機被視為衡量一國技術(shù)實力的一個標準，盡管它們是一種少見的小眾技術(shù)。國家和企業(yè)越來越多地在醫(yī)藥、新材料和能源技術(shù)等領(lǐng)域的廣泛任務(wù)中部署超級計算機。

Supercomputing is one step in China’s rapid rise in technology, stirring concerns in America about the country’s grand plan and tactics — and the potential economic and geopolitical implications of those advancements.

超級計算是中國在技術(shù)領(lǐng)域迅速崛起的步驟之一，引發(fā)了美國對中國的宏偉計劃和策略——以及這些進步的潛在經(jīng)濟和地緣政治影響的擔(dān)憂。

In an assessment last fall, the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan congressional advisory group, pointed to supercomputing as part of China’s “ambitious whole-of-government plan to achieve dominance in advanced technology.”

在去年秋天的一次評估中，國會的兩黨咨詢機構(gòu)美中經(jīng)濟安全審查委員會(United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission)指出，超級計算是中國“政府齊心協(xié)力，實現(xiàn)主導(dǎo)先進技術(shù)的宏偉計劃”的一部分。

China began its supercomputing push in earnest a decade ago. Initially, it absorbed foreign technology, and then steadily developed its own.

中國真正開始發(fā)展超級計算是十年前。最初吸收外國技術(shù)，然后逐步發(fā)展自己的技術(shù)。

“China was slow to make that work, but it’s working now,” said Richard Suttmeier, an expert in Chinese science policy at the University of Oregon.

“中國的起步很慢，但現(xiàn)在在穩(wěn)步推進，”俄勒岡大學(xué)(University of Oregon)研究中國科學(xué)政策的專家理查德·薩特邁耶(Richard Suttmeier)說。

The high-performance computing program, policy experts say, offers a blueprint for the multibillion-dollar efforts China has recently begun in fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing — the next frontiers of technology, where economic advantages will be won or lost.

政策專家稱，高性能計算項目為中國最近在人工智能和量子計算等關(guān)乎贏得或失去經(jīng)濟優(yōu)勢的下一代技術(shù)領(lǐng)域開始的行動提供了藍圖。相關(guān)行動涉及的資金投入以十億美元計。

Supercomputer technology has occasionally been a trade issue between the United States and China. In 2015, for example, Washington denied Intel a license to sell its microprocessor chips to four supercomputer labs in China, saying the centers worked on technology for the Chinese military.

超級計算機技術(shù)偶爾會成為美國與中國之間的貿(mào)易問題。比如2015年，華盛頓拒絕向英特爾頒發(fā)許可證，致使其無法向中國的四個超級計算機實驗室出售微處理器芯片。華盛頓稱這四家超級計算機中心是在為中國軍方研發(fā)技術(shù)。

The export ban, supercomputer experts say, served to prod the Chinese to accelerate their development efforts.

超級計算機專家稱，這項出口禁令促使中國加快了自己的發(fā)展速度。

“The lesson the Chinese took away was that you can’t rely on the United States,” said Jack Dongarra, a supercomputer expert at the University of Tennessee and co-creator of the Top 500 list of the fastest machines. “They’re trying to replace all Western technology with all Chinese-made.”

“中國吸取的教訓(xùn)是，不能依靠美國，”田納西大學(xué)(University of Tennessee)的超級計算機專家、超級計算機500強榜單的聯(lián)合制定者杰克·唐加拉(Jack Dongarra)說。“他們正在嘗試用中國自己的技術(shù)取代所有西方技術(shù)。”

Supercomputers were once found almost entirely in national laboratories, and used for government projects like simulating nuclear explosions and modeling weather patterns. But more than half of the 500 fastest are now toiling for corporations.

超級計算機一度幾乎全部位于國家實驗室里，用于模擬核爆和天氣模式建模等政府項目。但現(xiàn)在，全世界最快的500臺超級計算機中超過一半正服務(wù)于企業(yè)。

The global supercomputer market is expected to double from 2017 to 2022, to more than $9.5 billion, according to an estimate from Hyperion Research. The research firm defines supercomputers as machines that cost more than $500,000 each.

據(jù)研究公司Hyperion Research預(yù)計，從2017年到2022年，全球超級計算機市場將翻一番，增至逾95億美元(約合590億元人民幣)。該公司將超級計算機定義為每臺成本超過50萬美元的計算機。

Three Chinese companies are among the top five makers of the 500 fastest supercomputers. Lenovo is first, Inspur is third, and Sugon is fifth. Two American companies are second and fourth, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Cray.

在500強榜單中排名前五的制造商中，中國公司占三家。聯(lián)想第一、浪潮第三、中科曙光第五?；叟c(Hewlett-Packard Enterprise)和克雷(Cray)這兩家美國公司分列第二和第四。

The new list confirmed that the current fastest machine resides in the United States. This month, the Department of Energy announced that its new supercomputer, called Summit, had achieved speeds well ahead of the previous leader, the Sunway TaihuLight at a Chinese supercomputing center in Wuxi. Summit, built by IBM in a partnership with Nvidia, is at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

新榜單證實，目前最快的超級計算機在美國。本月，美國能源部(Department of Energy)宣布其新建成的超級計算機Summit實現(xiàn)的計算速度，遠超上一臺全球最快的超級計算機，即中國無錫一個超級計算中心的神威·太湖之光。Summit由IBM和Nvidia聯(lián)合建造，現(xiàn)在田納西州的橡樹嶺國家實驗室。

Depei Qian, a top supercomputer researcher in China, marvels at the progress his nation has made in the past decade — “beyond our expectations,” he said.

中國頂級的超級計算機研究人員錢德沛對中國過去十年取得的進展驚嘆不已。“超出了我們的預(yù)期，”他說。

A point of particular pride: The Sunway TaihuLight machine uses homegrown microprocessors. “That used to be a weakness,” said Mr. Qian, a computer science professor at both Sun Yat-sen University and Beihang University.

特別值得驕傲的一點是，神威·太湖之光使用的是國產(chǎn)微處理器。“過去這是一個弱勢，”同時在中山大學(xué)和北京航空航天大學(xué)任教的計算機科學(xué)教授錢德沛說。

But while China has made impressive strides, Mr. Qian said the country still lagged in certain advanced hardware technologies and, especially, in software. “Software is a tough issue for us,” he said. “That will take longer.”

盡管中國取得了驚人的進步，但錢德沛說，在某些先進的硬件技術(shù)，尤其是軟件方面，中國依然落后。“軟件對我們來說是個棘手的問題，”他說。“需要的時間更長。”

Software is a challenge for supercomputing engineers in general. Supercomputers are increasingly being programmed to process vast amounts of data with artificial intelligence software. So data-handling speeds in software applications often become more important than raw calculating speed, which has been the traditional yardstick of supercomputer performance.

總的來說，軟件是超級計算工程師面臨的一個挑戰(zhàn)。超級計算機越來越被設(shè)計成利用人工智能軟件處理海量數(shù)據(jù)。因此，軟件應(yīng)用程序的數(shù)據(jù)處理速度，往往比原始計算速度更重要。后者是超級計算機性能的傳統(tǒng)衡量標準。

The 500 list is based on the machines’ speed of mathematical calculation. But another benchmark — codeveloped by Mr. Dongarra of the University of Tennessee — measures data-handling speed in applications. Summit tops that list as well, while the Sunway machine ranks sixth.

500強榜單是根據(jù)超級計算機的數(shù)學(xué)計算速度制定的。但由田納西大學(xué)的唐加拉參與制定的另一項基準，衡量的是應(yīng)用程序的數(shù)據(jù)處理速度。在那份榜單中，Summit也名列榜首，神威·太湖之光位列第六。

But China is also catching up in software development, supercomputer experts said. “The flagship centers in China today are surprisingly similar to ours,” said Rick Stevens, an associate director of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

但超級計算機專家表示，中國在軟件研發(fā)方面也在迎頭趕上。“如今中國的重點中心與我們的驚人地相似，”伊利諾伊州阿貢國家實驗室(Argonne National Laboratory)副主任里克·史蒂文斯(Rick Stevens)說。

China’s overarching policy, Mr. Stevens said, is “to play the long game in technology, and supercomputers are just one part of that.”

斯蒂文斯說，中國總的政策是“在技術(shù)領(lǐng)域打持久戰(zhàn)，超級計算機只是其中的一部分”。