Yang Guangwen: Builder of the Most Powerful Computer

At the International Supercomputing Conference held in Frankfurt, Germany on June 20, 2016, the TOP500.org published the latest supercomputer rankings. China’s Sunway TaihuLight took pole position.

Sunway team members in their booth at the 2016 International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt.

This is the seventh time in a row that China’s supercomputers have topped the Top500 rankings, published biannually since 1993. Chinese-made Tianhe-2A, which came first last year, was second on the latest list.

“Sunway TaihuLight is the first supercomputer with a processor independently developed by China, and showcases our level in designing and manufacturing high-performance computers,” said Tsinghua University professor Yang Guang-wen, director of the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi where Sunway was produced. “We are now one of the forerunners in this field, rather than runner-up to developed countries such as the U.S. and Japan,” Yang added.