HPC software capability landscape in China

Hardware, applications, and software are equally important to the comprehensive strength of a country in the high-performance computing (HPC) arena. China has made significant progress in developing HPC systems in recent years. The nation’s first win of the Gordon Bell Prize at Supercomputing 2016 (SC16) also represents an accomplishment in HPC applications. China’s subsequent win in 2017 shows that the 2016 accomplishment was no accident. However, lacking adequately reliable and scalable application software remains the biggest challenge for China. Scientists and engineers who can develop algorithms and software to effectively use supercomputers are in short supply. The present report describes the current HPC software development landscape in China, including government projects and leading universities/research organizations/companies in terms of developing application software and programming frameworks (middleware), as well as examples of self-developed software in the application areas of energy and physics, aerospace, manufacturing, weather and climate, biotechnology (biotech), material science, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics. In addition, China’s demand and supply of HPC experts are analyzed. Data for this report were generated during the first half of 2017. Some modifications to the text have been added to account for new information through the end of 2017.