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China operates a number of supercomputer centers which have held world records in speed.
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The origins of these centers go back to 1989, when the State Planning Commission, the State Science and Technology Commission and the World Bank jointly launched a project to develop networking and supercomputer facilities in China. In addition to network facilities, the project included three supercomputer centers. Today, China is home to the world's fastest supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight.
Progress
The progress of supercomputing in China has been rapid; the country's most powerful supercomputer placed 51st in June 2003, 10th by June 2004, and by November 2010 held top spot. China would go on to fall behind Japan in June 2011 until June 2013 when the country's most powerful supercomputer once again clocked in as the world record.
Prior to the Sunway TaihuLight, Chinese supercomputers have used "off the shelf" processors, e.g. Tianhe-1 uses thousands of Intel and Nvidia chips, and uses the Linux operating system which is open source software. However, to avoid possible future technology embargo restrictions, the Chinese are developing their own processors such as the Loongson, a MIPS type processor.
According to the MIT Technology Review, the Loongson processor would power the Dawning supercomputers by 2012, producing a line of totally Chinese made supercomputers that reach petaflop speeds.
China
The Supercomputing Center of the China Academy of Sciences (SCCAS) provides academic support functions to the National Centers.
Changsha
Foundations for a new major branch of the National Supercomputing Center (国家超级计算中心 Guójiā Chāojíjìsuàn Zhōngxīn) were laid in Changsha on 28 November 2010.
Guangzhou
The National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou operates the second most powerful supercomputer in the world (as of June 2016) Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2), which runs at 33,000 teraflops. It also operates the Tianhe-1A Guangzhou Solution - NUDT YH MPP supercomputer that runs at 211 teraflops.
Hunan
The National Supercomputing Center in Hunan operates the Tianhe-1A Hunan Solution - NUDT YH MPP supercomputer which runs at 1342 teraflops.
Jinan
The National Supercomputing Center in Jinan operates the Sunway BlueLight MPP supercomputer that runs at 795 teraflops.
Shanghai
The Shanghai Supercomputer Center operates the Magic Cube supercomputer that runs at 230 teraflops.
Shenzhen
The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen houses the second fastest machine in China, and the third fastest in the world. In May 2010 the Nebulae computer in Shenzhen placed second on the Top 500 supercomputer list, after the Cray computer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Tianjin
The National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin is one of the main centers. It houses the Tianhe-I supercomputer which in October 2010 became the top speed record holder in the world by consistently operating at 2.507 petaflops. The Tianjin Computer Institute had been active as far back as 1984 when it developed the 16-bit TQ-0671 microcomputer system. A commercial affiliate of the Tianjin center had previously made the PHPC100 personal supercomputer in 2008 which was about twice the size of a normal desktop computer, but had 40 times the speed. In 2010 a second generation model was released.
Wuxi
The National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi houses the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer, the most powerful supercomputer in the world as of June 2016.