Chinese supercomputer LineShine tops global speed ranking
LineShine displaced the U.S. system El Capitan on the TOP500 list, giving China its first No. 1 supercomputer ranking since 2018.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
2 min read
China’s LineShine supercomputer has moved into first place on the latest TOP500 ranking, overtaking the U.S. system El Capitan, according to TOP500 data cited by The Verge. The result gives China its first No. 1 placement on the list since 2018 and comes as U.S. restrictions have limited sales of some advanced computing components to Chinese buyers, The Verge reported.
The system is housed at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, according to a photo caption credited to Xinhua via Getty Images. The TOP500 list is a widely watched benchmark for high-performance computing systems and often serves as a public measure of national and institutional strength in supercomputing.
LineShine’s rise shifts the lead away from the United States, which still holds three of the top five positions on the ranking, according to The Verge. The U.S. system El Capitan had previously occupied the top slot.
A CPU-heavy design
The Verge reported that LineShine does not rely on GPUs, the accelerators commonly used in many current supercomputers. Instead, the machine uses about 45,000 LX2 processors, each with 304 cores running at 1.55GHz, according to the report.
Those processors are connected through LingQi, a custom high-speed, low-latency network, The Verge reported. The design reflects China’s use of more broadly available general-purpose CPUs as U.S. rules restrict access to certain high-performance chips from American suppliers.
The Trump administration has sought to limit China’s access to chips from companies including Nvidia, and it has imposed steep tariffs on goods moving into and out of China, according to The Verge. The report framed LineShine’s No. 1 ranking as both a technical milestone and a political signal from Beijing to Washington.
Speed comes with a power cost
LineShine is the first supercomputer to pass the 2,000 exaflop mark, according to The Verge’s account of the TOP500 results. The report said it is 20 percent faster than El Capitan, now ranked second.
The added speed comes with higher energy use. LineShine consumes 42.2 megawatts, compared with 29.7 megawatts for El Capitan, according to The Verge.
That gap makes LineShine less efficient than the U.S. system even as it leads the overall performance table, according to the report. The new ranking underscores the competition between China and the United States in high-end computing, where performance, energy use and access to chips all shape the race.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.