AMD Opterons to power Chinese supercomputer

By Alun Williams

Posted on 28 Jul 2003 at 15:15

AMD has announced a deal to build one of the world's most powerful computers in China using its 64-bit server processor, the Opteron.

Working with Dawning Information Industry Corporation, the supercomputer will be built from more than 2,000 Opteron 800-series processors and have a memory capacity of up to 2.256 terabytes (2,256GB).

It is expected that the Dawning 4000A supercomputer will run at 10 Tflops, which is 10 trillion operations per second.

AMD claims it will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, a first for China.

'Drawing on AMD's leading edge AMD Opteron processors and Dawning's team of world-class research and development engineers, we expect to usher in a new era of supercomputing technology and innovation in China,' said Marty Seyer, general manager of AMD's microprocessor business unit. 'This project demonstrates the synergy that can be achieved when two powerful companies combine their strengths.'

'The Dawning 4000A supercomputer will play an important role in promoting the development of high-performance computing networks in China,' said Li Jun, president of Dawning. Anticipated end-users include private businesses as well as scientific research institutes.

Note, however, that US government approval is still being sought by AMD to participate in the project.

If China has a population of 1,284,000,000 - according to the CIA Factbook - we calculate the computer to have 1.8Kb per person in China. Are our calculations correct? What are your thoughts on this Chinese supercomputer? Leave a comment via the link below.