News on China's scientific and technological development.

China has created a High Performance Computing “ecosystem” in an amazingly short period of time
Supercomputer domination provides a global economic competitiveness advantage



As history has shown, HPC (High performance computing - supercomputers- translates into innovations in aircraft, automobiles, oil and gas, biomedical, nuclear energy and military systems.

In 1993, when the first TOP500 list was published, China was not even on it.
Ten years ago, in 2006, China had 28 systems on the list and the U.S. dominated with 298 systems.
Five years ago the count was China 61 and the U.S. 255.
As of June 2016, the tables are turned. China has 168 systems on the list and the U.S. dropped to #2 overall with 165 systems.



The US stopped deploying large systems and let the US supercomputer lead slip away.

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2016-08-20 14:24:26 Xinhua Web Editor: Zhang Xu


Chinese scientists have discovered a small molecule that can regenerate tissue, which in the future could make tissue regeneration much easier for many. [Photo: Agencies]

Chinese scientists have discovered a small molecule that can regenerate tissue, which in the future could make tissue regeneration much easier for many.

The research was led by professor Zhou Dawang and Deng Xianming of the School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, and professor Yun Caihong of Peking University.

The findings were published in the latest edition of Science Translational Medicine, on August 17.

Zhou said they have discovered a drug, XMU-MP-1, which can promote repair and regeneration in the liver, intestines and skin.

In the future, the pills may do away the need for organ transplant or complex biomaterial and cell therapies, he said.

Zhou and his colleagues specifically targeted a critical signaling molecule in the Hippo pathway, which controls organ size.

The XMU-MP-1 has proven to inhibit the activity of MST1/2, the central component of this pathway and promote cell growth in four different mouse models of acute and chronic injuries, including acetaminophen-induced injury, which is a common cause of liver failure worldwide.

Zhou said they have applied for a patent and are cooperating with pharmaceutical companies to produce the medicine.

A.Man said:

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I find this pompous and entertaining. Point 1 indicates that the US only lost because it wasn't being serious, which assumes no one could ever compare with the US if it was serious! It attempts to brush aside other countries abilities and potentials, which may be greater than that of the US, serious or not. Point 3: Duh; why did he even say this? That's basically like telling a runner in a race that the key to winning is to not stop running. Point 5: Embarrassing indeed; it once again reflects how pompous the author is, thinking that the US is so perfect that learning from someone else is embarrassing while someone with the real attitude to success knows that there's always something to learn from anyone, no matter who's winning overall. Likely he'll have plenty of time to get used to the embarrassment in the future.

manqiangrexue said:

I find this pompous and entertaining. Point 1 indicates that the US only lost because it wasn't being serious, which assumes no one could ever compare with the US if it was serious! It attempts to brush aside other countries abilities and potentials, which may be greater than that of the US, serious or not. Point 3: Duh; why did he even say this? That's basically like telling a runner in a race that the key to winning is to not stop running. Point 5: Embarrassing indeed; it once again reflects how pompous the author is, thinking that the US is so perfect that learning from someone else is embarrassing while someone with the real attitude to success knows that there's always something to learn from anyone, no matter who's winning overall. Likely he'll have plenty of time to get used to the embarrassment in the future.

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With these kind of "expert" at the helm, the end is pretty clear.

And Point 1 really remind me of some kids during my childhood when we were below 10.

A very good TV documentary program:

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Source: Xinhua | 2016-08-24 12:08:35 | Editor: huaxia


FT-2000/64 CPU,designed by Phytium Technology Co. Ltd, a Chinese integrated circuit design firm. (Xinhua Photo)

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Phytium Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese integrated circuit (IC) design firm, has unveiled its latest product, a 64-core central processing unit (CPU), and a related prototype computer server at a technology event in Silicon Valley.

The company, based in Tianjin, northern China, claims that its FT-2000/64 CPU, with 4.8 billion transistors on a die 25.20 millimeters in width and 25.38 millimeters in length within a chip package 55 millimeters in width and 55 millimeters in length, is the first of its kind adopting the Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) architecture.

As RISC stands for reduced instruction set computer, the ARM architecture results in processors, as the heart of computers, with relatively less number of transistors and therefore reduced cost, heat and power use.

At Hot Chips, an annual symposium on high performance computer chips co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in Cupertino, northern California, from Sunday through Tuesday, engineers from Phytium said the new CPU chip, with 64-bit arithmetic compatible with ARMv8 instructions, is able to perform 512 billion floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) at base frequency of 2.0 GHz and on 100 watts of power dissipation.

While the architecture is licensed from ARM Holdings, a British company, Phytium has designed its own cores, known as FTC661s, which are the units that read and execute program instructions, such as add, move data and branch, to be integrated into the chip, enabling it to run multiple instructions at the same time in what is called parallel computing.

One of major CPU developers in China, Phytium's previous CPU series integrate either 4 or 16 cores.

Shying off comparing its products with more typical complex instruction set computing (CISC) x86 processors, such as those manufactured by Intel Corporation, one of the world's largest chip makers based on revenue, Phytium says the FT-2000/64 is so far the best in the ARM category.

According to a sales respresentative, Phytium has provided thousands of CPUs to system builders that supply equipment for government institutions, telecommunication businesses, banks and public utilities in China, and its latest chip is expected to be used in high-throughput and high-performance servers.

Source: Xinhua 2016-08-24 16:40:04

BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has approved funding for 38,160 projects this year, with a total investment of more than 18 billion yuan (2.8 billion U.S.dollars).

With a budget of 24.8 billion yuan for 2016, the NSFC received 177,551 applications as of August 16, it announced on Tuesday.

For programs exploring scientific frontiers, each has received an average 600,000 yuan investment. Those designated priority areas, such as quantum information technology, cosmic ray detection, and global environmental change, were each financed with 2.8 million yuan on average.

China has used its science fund to further develop basic science research and elevate the reputation of its academic papers, cutting-edge programs and research achievements.

During 2011 to 2015, the science fund financed nearly 200,000 programs, with around 88.8 billion yuan from state revenue and more than 1.7 billion yuan from other sources, according to NSFC figures.

To prevent misuse of funds, the foundation has issued regulations to ensure all the money is used appropriately.

Editor: Hou Qiang

ahojunk said:

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Source: Xinhua 2016-08-24 16:40:04

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My eyes are green with envy and jealousy Wish I could get my hands on some of that money... It's been a nightmare with NIH...

Hendrik_2000 said:

A lot of western historian question the existence of Xia dynasty because there is no archeological proof in form of turtle shell oracle. So they mock up the Chinese claim of 4000 yr civilization as fabrication.to glorify the Chinese civilization

But the story of the great flood lives in common consciousness of Chinese people. Yu the great was considered as one of the founder of Chinese civilization by advocating that the common good prevail over individuality that still ring true today.

You see diverting river with your bare hand required hundred of thousand of people working together for the common good. It required motivation, coordination.and sense of purpose

So he invented ritual or festival to bring people together. Confucius incorporate this as foundation of his basic teaching and bring light to the Sino world of East Asia.

But unfortunately so many of Chinese ritual, festival are lost in mainland China due to war, negligent Manchu occupation, communism. That is why there is void and rampant materialism in China. But the government and people now realized what they are missing and slowly it come back again now.

If you go to Japan in summer time there are hundred of festival. Every little town has festivals

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Yes it's very unfortunate. I've read articles in the past that were it not for overseas Chinese, thousands of years of Chinese culture and civilization would've pretty much been extinguished.
As a matter a fact one can even argue that from a cultural perspective many overseas chinese are actually more 'chinese' than mainlanders.

like you said between all the wars, the Japanese occupation and Mao's rule much of chinese culture were destroyed. Entire generations grew up not knowing their cultural identities because there was none to pass down.
A chinese co worker of mine had mentioned that while China is a very very old country, in many ways it's also very very new.

If they can identify a person through Wi-Fi waves, it's probably not too far off from an article I read a few years ago that said China and Russia were developing underwater submarine detection by satellite just by reading the wave patterns on the surface of the water.