At the fifth China Supercomputing Conference, ChinaSC 2023, several prominent players in the Chinese supercomputer industry unveiled the country's list of Top 100 supercomputers, reports ScienceNet.cn. Many of these machines aren't listed on the American-led global Top500.org supercomputing list, which isn't surprising given that China-based supercomputer submissions to the Top500 have come to a screeching halt for the highest-end systems due to concerns of attracting attention for increased US sanctions.
China is grappling with the impact of US sanctions on its supercomputing industry, but despite those interventions, it has already managed to build several exascale-class supercomputers. However, even China's own list does not include the country's fastest 'ExaFLOPS supercomputers,' indicating that the upper echelons of China's supercomputing landscape remain shrouded behind a heavy veil of secrecy.
China's lack of Top500 submissions underscores the ongoing separation of the Chinese supercomputing sector from the global high-performance computing (HPC) industry, despite most of those systems being powered by technology from US tech giants. Our analysis of the new list provides several insights into how China's broader supercomputing ecosystem continues to evolve despite US sanctions and outlines the US-based companies that continue to fuel China's objectives.
