Globally, computing power has become an important indicator to measure a country's scientific and technological strength and economic development level. According to the "China Computing Center Service Provider Analysis Report (2024)" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China's total computing power has reached the second place in the world, and the number of supercomputing power ranks first in the world. Behind this achievement is China's comprehensive progress in computing infrastructure construction, technological innovation, industrial application, and policy environment. The rapid development of China's computing power not only marks the rise of a technological power, but also has a profound impact on the global digital economy.
Infrastructure construction: the physical cornerstone of computing power
The total scale of computing center racks in use in China exceeds 8.1 million standard racks, and this huge number is behind China's continuous investment and optimization of computing infrastructure. The promotion of the "Eastern Data and Western Computing" project not only optimizes the geographical layout of the data center, but also promotes the efficient coordination of eastern and western resources, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale development of computing power.
Figure: China Academy of Information and Communications Technology: China's total computing power is the second in the world, and the number of supercomputing is the first in the world
Technological innovation: the core driving force for the development of computing power
Technological innovation is the core of promoting the development of computing power. China has continuously made breakthroughs in cutting-edge fields such as intelligent computing and quantum computing, demonstrating strong R&D capabilities. According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, by the end of 2022, the scale of China's computing power core industry reached 1.8 trillion yuan, and the total scale of computing power reached 180EFLOPS, with an annual growth rate of nearly 30%, which far exceeded the global average.
Industrial applications: Computing power empowers the digital economy
The rapid development of computing power has directly led to the prosperity of China's digital economy. In key fields such as artificial intelligence, big data processing, and cloud computing, computing power has become a key force to promote industrial upgrading and digital transformation. The application of computing power in China is not only limited to the field of science and technology, but also plays an important role in government affairs, finance, transportation and other industries.
Policy environment: a booster for the development of computing power
The Chinese government has a clear understanding of the strategic position of computing power, and through policy documents such as the Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China, it has clarified the core role of computing power in the country's development and pointed out the direction for the future development of computing power. The support of the policy provides a good environment and conditions for the development of the computing industry.
The development and international competitiveness of China's computing power technology
In the development of computing power, several technical fields in China have reached the international leading level or shown great potential, and the development of these technical fields has not only promoted China's position in the global computing power competition, but also provided solid technical support and innovation impetus for the high-quality development of the domestic digital economy
1. Artificial intelligence computing chips: China continues to develop rapidly in the field of AI chips, and companies such as Baidu and Cambrian have accelerated the iterative optimization of AI chips, promoting an all-round upgrade from general computing to intelligent computing.
2. Intelligent computing power: The scale of intelligent computing power in China continues to grow rapidly, reaching 41EFLOPS in 2022, with a growth rate of more than 70%, showing strong development potential.
3. Quantum computing: In the field of quantum computing, the Chinese research team has achieved breakthroughs in quantum error correction, extended the storage time of quantum information, and released a quantum computational chemistry programming software package to promote the application of quantum computing in the field of biochemistry.
4. Cloud computing and cloud-native technology: With the rapid growth of the cloud computing market, cloud-native technology and artificial intelligence technology are deeply integrated, accelerating the application prospects of a wider range of fields.
5. High-performance computing (HPC): China's high-performance computing technology is developing rapidly, and the 2022 China HPC TOP100 list shows that the computing power of the first place has reached 208.26 PFlops, and companies such as Lenovo, Inspur, and Sugon have significant advantages in the field of supercomputing.
6. Heterogeneous computing: China has demonstrated strong R&D and innovation capabilities in the field of heterogeneous computing, including acceleration chips such as GPUS, FPGA, and ASICs, as well as the application of chiplet and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technologies.
7. Storage-computing technology: Storage-computing integration technology has been developed in China, which can not only meet the low-power requirements of the edge side, but also has the potential for large computing power and is suitable for a variety of computing scenarios.
8. Optical computing: Although optical computing is currently mainly suitable for scenarios that do not require high computing accuracy, Chinese enterprises and research institutions are actively exploring optical computing technology, and some enterprises have begun to turn to the research of basic technologies such as laser light sources and photonic networks.
Challenges and prospects
Despite its remarkable achievements, the development of computing power in China also faces challenges. The intensification of global competition for computing power requires China to further enhance its independent innovation capabilities and reduce its dependence on external technologies. At the same time, the rapid growth of computing power has also brought energy consumption and environmental problems, and it is necessary to seek a green and sustainable development path.
Summary
The rapid development of China's computing power is the epitome of the rise of a technological power, and it is also a symbol of China's increasing influence in the global digital economy. With the continuous progress of technology and the continuous optimization of the policy environment, China's computing power is expected to play a more important role on the global stage and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the development of the global digital economy.
