China will install CPUs developed by government-backed research institutions into a test supercomputer by the end of 2011.
The Loongson microchips will underpin the Dawning 6000 high-performance computing system, which is scheduled to be available for tasks as early as summer, China's state-owned People's Daily Online publication reported.
The Dawning 6000 will use up to 10,000 Loongson microchips and will eventually have a computing speed of more than 1,000 trillion operations a second, according to the article. (1,000 trillion operations are equal to a petaflop.)
For perspective, the Chinese Tianhe-1A leads the Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, with a consistent speed of 2.5 petaflops and a theoretical peak of 4.7 petaflops.
Read more of "China to test own CPU in supercomputer this year" at ZDNet UK.
