China Plans Two Exaflops CPU-Based Supercomputer

China’s National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen has announced plans for the LineShine supercomputer, targeting a performance of two exaflops with entirely Chinese-made hardware. The system will consist of 47,000 CPUs housed in 92 cabinets, featuring a million-port interconnect and 650PB of storage. Initially powered by 100 Huawei Kunpeng servers, the production version will scale to 1,580 servers with x86 CPUs totaling 101,120 cores.

The deployment of LineShine marks a significant shift in exascale computing, enabling China to prioritize domestic technology in supercomputing capabilities. Achieving two exaflops solely with CPUs would distinguish this system from current GPU-dominated exascale machines. This development likely enhances China's AI capacity while minimizing foreign dependency, reinforcing the nation’s strategic aims in high-performance computing.