China's supercomputer Tianhe-1 serves 1,600 clients

TIANJIN - Since being launched in 2010, China's first petaflop supercomputer Tianhe-1 has served more than 1,600 clients as of the end of 2017.

The computer, housed at the National Center for Supercomputing in the northern port city of Tianjin, is performing an average of 1,400 online tasks on a daily basis, said Zhang Ting, an engineer with the center.

Zhang said that with the help of Tianhe-1, the center is capable of technologies such as super computing, cloud computing and big data, offering support for research institutes, universities, companies and governments around the country.

It is estimated that Tianhe-1 has helped hundreds of companies save up to 100 million yuan (15.65 million U.S. dollars) of R&D investment, and brought in over 3-billion-yuan profit for them, she said.

The supercomputer serves industries including animation, online finance and big data, as well as e-governance of the Binhai New Area.

Tianhe-1, which is capable of at least 1 million billion calculations per second, was unveiled to the world in 2010.

Zhang said that the center would further incorporate the technologies of big data and cloud computing with traditional industries, and better serve advanced and hi-tech manufacturing sectors.