China’s LineShine has been named the world’s fastest supercomputer at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany, surpassing the US-built El Capitan. It marks the first time since 2017 that a Chinese machine has topped the TOP500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
Supercomputers are used for complex scientific tasks ranging from climate modeling and human brain simulations to cryptography and advanced research.
According to rankings released on Tuesday, LineShine, developed by the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, can perform nearly 2.2 quintillion (billion billion) calculations per second. It outperformed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s El Capitan by more than 20% in a key benchmark. The American system had held the top spot in the twice-yearly TOP500 rankings since November 2024.
LineShine also stands out for relying entirely on standard central processing units (CPU) rather than the graphics processing units (GPU) used by most leading supercomputers.
“This is the first time a computer with only CPUs has reached exascale,” TOP500 co-founder and Turing Award winner Jack Dongarra told the South China Morning Post, referring to the milestone of performing at least 1 quintillion calculations per second.
GPUs, prized for handling large numbers of simultaneous calculations, are critical to advanced AI systems and have become a focal point in the technological rivalry between the US and China. Seeking to slow China’s progress, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed restrictions on exports of advanced chips.
“China can adapt to develop its own version of technology as good as – or maybe even better than – existing technology, despite US export controls,” Dongarra said.