# Sunway TaihuLight

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Supercomputer in Jiangsu, China

Sunway TaihuLight Active June 2016 Operators National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi Location National Supercomputer Center, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China Architecture Sunway Power 15 MW (LINPACK) Operating system Sunway RaiseOS 2.0.5 (based on Linux) Memory 1.32 PB (5591 TB/s total bandwidth) Storage 20 PB Speed 1.45 GHz (3.06 TFlops single CPU, 105 PFLOPS LINPACK, 125 PFLOPS peak) Cost 1.8 billion Yuan (US$273 million) Purpose Oil prospecting, life sciences, weather forecast, industrial design, pharmaceutical research[citation needed]

The **Sunway TaihuLight** ([Chinese](/source/Chinese_language): 神威·太湖之光 *Shénwēi·tàihú zhī guāng*) is a Chinese [supercomputer](/source/Supercomputer) which, as of November 2025[\[update\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunway_TaihuLight&action=edit), is ranked 24th in the [TOP500](/source/TOP500) list,[1] with a [LINPACK benchmark](/source/LINPACK_benchmark) rating of 93 [petaflops](/source/Petaflops).[2] The name is translated as *divine power, the light of [Taihu Lake](/source/Taihu_Lake)*.[3] This is nearly three times as fast as the previous [Tianhe-2](/source/Tianhe-2), which ran at 34 petaflops. As of June 2017[\[update\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sunway_TaihuLight&action=edit), it is ranked as the 16th most energy-efficient supercomputer in the [Green500](/source/Green500),[4] with an efficiency of 6.1 [GFlops/watt](/source/MFLOPS%2FW). It was designed by the [National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Research_Center_of_Parallel_Computer_Engineering_%26_Technology&action=edit&redlink=1) (NRCPC) and is located at the [National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi](/source/National_Supercomputing_Center_in_Wuxi) in the city of [Wuxi](/source/Wuxi), in [Jiangsu](/source/Jiangsu) province, China.[5][2]

The Sunway TaihuLight was the world's fastest supercomputer for two years, from June 2016 to June 2018, according to the TOP500 lists. The record was surpassed in June 2018 by IBM's [Summit](/source/Summit_(supercomputer)).[6][5][7]

## Architecture

The Sunway TaihuLight utilizes domestically developed semiconductors, including a total of 40,960 Chinese-designed [SW26010](/source/SW26010) [manycore](/source/Manycore_processor) 64-bit [RISC processors](/source/Reduced_instruction_set_computing) based on the [Sunway architecture](/source/Sunway_architecture).[5][2][8] Each processor chip contains 256 processing cores, and an additional four auxiliary cores for system management (also RISC cores, just more fully featured) for a total of 10,649,600 CPU cores across the entire system.[8]

The processing cores feature 64 KB of [scratchpad memory](/source/Scratchpad_memory) for data (and 16 KB[8] for instructions) and communicate via a [network on a chip](/source/Network_on_a_chip), instead of having a traditional [cache hierarchy](/source/Cache_hierarchy).[9]

## Software

The system runs on its own operating system, Sunway RaiseOS 2.0.5, which is based on [Linux](/source/Linux).[8] The system has its own customized implementation of [OpenACC 2.0](/source/OpenACC_2.0) to aid the parallelization of code.[10]

## Future development

China's first [exascale](/source/Exascale_computing) supercomputer was scheduled to enter service by 2020 according to the head of the school of computing at the [National University of Defense Technology](/source/National_University_of_Defense_Technology) (NUDT). According to the national plan for the next generation of high performance computers, the country would have develop an exascale computer during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period (2016–2020). The government of Tianjin Binhai New Area, NUDT and the [National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin](/source/National_Supercomputing_Center_of_Tianjin) are working on the project.[11] The investment is likely to hit 3 billion yuan ($470.6 million).[12]

## See also

- [Sunway BlueLight](/source/Sunway_BlueLight)

- [Manycore processor](/source/Manycore_processor)

- [Massively parallel processor array](/source/Massively_parallel_processor_array)

- [Supercomputing in China](/source/Supercomputing_in_China)

- [Summit (supercomputer)](/source/Summit_(supercomputer))

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["TOP500 List November 2023"](https://www.top500.org/lists/top500/list/2023/11/). *[TOP500](/source/TOP500)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20231208135228/https://www.top500.org/lists/top500/list/2023/11/) from the original on 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2024-03-08.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-top500_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-top500_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-top500_2-2) ["China Tops Supercomputer Rankings with New 93-Petaflop Machine"](http://www.top500.org/news/china-tops-supercomputer-rankings-with-new-93-petaflop-machine/). *top500.org*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190531062222/https://www.top500.org/news/china-tops-supercomputer-rankings-with-new-93-petaflop-machine/) from the original on 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Rise of the supercomputers: Developing software, talent are key challenges for China"](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/developing-software-talent-are-key-challenges). *[The Straits Times](/source/The_Straits_Times)*. 2018-01-28. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190115182107/https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/developing-software-talent-are-key-challenges) from the original on 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2019-01-15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-green201606_4-0)** ["The Green500 List - June 2017"](https://web.archive.org/web/20170704011451/https://www.top500.org/green500/list/2017/06/). *Green500*. Archived from [the original](https://www.top500.org/green500/list/2017/06/) on 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-11-27.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bloomberg2016_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bloomberg2016_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-bloomberg2016_5-2) Clark, Jack; King, Ian (2016-06-20). ["World's Fastest Supercomputer Now Has Chinese Chip Technology"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/world-s-fastest-supercomputer-now-has-chinese-chip-technology). *Bloomberg.com*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160620081337/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/world-s-fastest-supercomputer-now-has-chinese-chip-technology) from the original on 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-top500/June2018_6-0)** ["TOP500 - November 2017"](https://www.top500.org/lists/2018/06//). TOP500. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20180625132505/https://www.top500.org/lists/2018/06//) from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["China builds world's most powerful computer"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36575947). *BBC News*. 2016-06-20. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190404160838/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36575947) from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2016-06-20.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-dongarra2016_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-dongarra2016_8-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-dongarra2016_8-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-dongarra2016_8-3) Dongarra, Jack (2016-06-20). ["Report on the Sunway TaihuLight System"](http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-report-2016.pdf) (PDF). *netlib.org*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20181110192953/http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-report-2016.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-10. Retrieved 2016-06-20. Each CPE Cluster is composed of a Management Processing Element (MPE) which is a 64-bit RISC core which is supporting both user and system modes, a 256-bit vector instructions, 32 KB L1 instruction cache and 32 KB L1 data cache, and a 256KB L2 cache. The Computer Processing Element (CPE) is composed of an 8×8 mesh of 64-bit RISC cores, supporting only user mode, with a 256-bit vector instructions, 16 KB L1 instruction cache and 64 KB Scratch Pad Memory (SPM). [..] Each CPE has a 64 KB local (scratchpad) memory, no cache memory. The local memory is SRAM. There is a 16KB instruction cache. Each of the 4 CPE/MPE clusters has 8 GB of DDR3 memory. So a node has 32 GB of primary memory. Each processor connects to four 128-bit DDR3-2133 memory controllers, with a memory bandwidth of 136.51 GB/s.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Lendino, James (2016-06-20). ["Meet the new world's fastest supercomputer: China's TaihuLight"](http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/230458-meet-the-new-worlds-fastest-supercomputer-chinas-taihulight). *Extremetech*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160621132844/http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/230458-meet-the-new-worlds-fastest-supercomputer-chinas-taihulight) from the original on 2016-06-21. Retrieved 2016-06-21. The TOP500 report said that the chip also lacks any traditional L1-L2-L3 cache, and instead has 12KB[sic] of instruction cache and 64KB "local scratchpad" that works sort of like an L1 cache.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Fu, Haohuan; Liao, Junfeng; Yang, Jinzhe; Wang, Lanning; Song, Zhenya; Huang, Xiaomeng; Yang, Chao; Xue, Wei; Liu, Fangfang; Qiao, Fangli; Zhao, Wei; Yin, Xunqiang; Hou, Chaofeng; Zhang, Chenglong; Ge, Wei; Zhang, Jian; Wang, Yangang; Zhou, Chunbo; Yang, Guangwen (2016). ["The Sunway TaihuLight Supercomputer: System and Applications"](https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11432-016-5588-7). *Sci. China Inf. Sci*. **59** (7). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1007/s11432-016-5588-7](https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11432-016-5588-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["China's Exascale Supercomputer Operational by 2020---Chinese Academy of Sciences"](http://english.cas.cn/newsroom/china_research/201606/t20160616_164450.shtml). *english.cas.cn*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160620182006/http://english.cas.cn/newsroom/china_research/201606/t20160616_164450.shtml) from the original on 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2018-11-28.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["One Billion Billion! Tianhe-3 Exascale Supercomputer Prototype Passes Tests"](https://medium.com/syncedreview/one-billion-billion-tianhe-3-exascale-supercomputer-prototype-passes-tests-7d30aa97aca2). *Medium*. 27 July 2018. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20181128211045/https://medium.com/syncedreview/one-billion-billion-tianhe-3-exascale-supercomputer-prototype-passes-tests-7d30aa97aca2) from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.

## External links

- [Top500 list entry for the Sunway TaihuLight](http://www.top500.org/system/178764)

- [CCTV video news story on Sunway TaihuLight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdsrT1mFAU)

- [Hardware of Sunway TaihuLight](http://demo.wxmax.cn/wxc/soft1.php?word=soft&i=46)

- Andersen, Cameron (22 June 2017). [*Meet the world's most powerful computer*](https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170621-meet-the-worlds-most-powerful-computer). *BBC News*. - BBC 5-minute video

Records Preceded by Tianhe-2 33.9 petaflops World's most powerful supercomputer June 2016 – June 2018 Succeeded by Summit 200 petaflops

[31°32′55.01″N 120°14′52.94″E / 31.5486139°N 120.2480389°E / 31.5486139; 120.2480389](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Sunway_TaihuLight&params=31_32_55.01_N_120_14_52.94_E_region:CN_type:landmark)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Sunway TaihuLight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunway_TaihuLight) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunway_TaihuLight?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.