China’s LineShine supercomputer became the world’s fastest system in TOP500. The special thing is that no chip from Nvidia, AMD or Intel was used in it.
LineShine Supercomputer: China has made a major achievement in the world of supercomputing. The supercomputer named LineShine present in the country’s National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen has been declared the world’s fastest supercomputer in the recently released TOP500 list. This achievement is also considered special because China has achieved it without any chips from American companies like Nvidia, AMD or Intel. LineShine has achieved the first position, leaving behind America’s El Capitan supercomputer.
LineShine overtakes El Capitan in TOP500 ranking
According to the new TOP500 list, LineShine’s performance capacity has been recorded at 2.198 exaflops. This means it can perform more than 2 quintillion calculations every second. This performance is said to be more than 20 percent better than America’s El Capitan supercomputer. El Capitan was considered to be the world’s fastest supercomputer from November 2024. El Capitan is located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is used for critical scientific work related to the US nuclear weapons program. In the new ranking, El Capitan has reached second place, while the third and fourth places are American supercomputers based in Tennessee and Illinois. Germany’s Jupiter supercomputer has slipped to fifth place. Currently only five publicly confirmed exascale supercomputers in the world are included in this list.
CPU based design caught the world’s attention
The biggest feature of LineShine is its design. Most of today’s supercomputers use GPUs for heavy computing tasks, but LineShine is an entirely CPU-based system. Experts believe this is an unusual achievement as the world of supercomputing has become increasingly GPU-centric over the past several years. LineShine has approximately 14 million computing cores, which are installed in 90 cabinets. This system consumes approximately 42.2 MW of power.
The system runs on domestic LX2 processor and KylinOS
The LX2 processors used in LineShine are developed in China. These processors are based on Arm Holdings’ Armv9 architecture. The system runs on China’s Linux-based operating system KylinOS. These processors have special circuits installed for matrix and vector calculations. Such tasks are usually performed by the GPU, but LineShine accomplishes them through the CPU itself. Jack Dongara, one of the founders of TOP500 and a supercomputing expert, said after inspecting the machine that the system is really impressive and does not depend on the GPU.
China sent machine to TOP500 for the first time after 2023
A political and strategic aspect of this achievement is also being considered. Following export controls and technical restrictions imposed by the US, China had almost stopped sending its machines to the TOP500 list from 2023. In such a situation, inclusion of LineShine in TOP500 is being considered a deliberate step. Intersect360 Research analyst Edison Snell said he was not surprised that this system became number-1, but it is surprising that China decided to include it in the competition.
Claims to be made without government funding
According to reports, Jack Dongara was told that LineShine was developed without government funding. For this reason its developers decided to include it in a public competition. Additionally, the team has also sent 14 entries for the prestigious scientific computing honor Gordon Bell Prize.
Achievement came amid US-China technology competition
LineShine’s success comes at a time when technological competition between the US and China is increasing. US President Donald Trump has recently taken new steps to maintain America’s lead in quantum computing and advanced technologies. In such an environment, China’s introduction of the world’s fastest supercomputer is being considered a big message in the technical field.
Still some questions in terms of AI performance
However, experts say that merely securing the first position in TOP500 does not indicate absolute progress in the AI field. LineShine ranked fourth in certain benchmarks measuring AI-focused workloads. That is, its strength in traditional high-performance computing is obvious, but some other systems perform better than it in AI-based tasks.
Large AI clusters are not part of the TOP500 list
Experts also pointed out that many of the world’s most powerful AI systems are not included in the TOP500 ranking. For example, xAI’s Colossus system and the massive AI clusters of Microsoft, Amazon and Google do not participate in this list. According to one study, the total computing capacity of Colossus may even exceed that of El Capitan.
Expert said – debate continues on being the fastest system in the world
Jimmy Goodrich, an expert with the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, says that if large hyperscalers include their systems in the TOP500, then LineShine may not even reach the top five in the list of the world’s fastest systems. He also said that CPU technology is a potential loophole in existing US export control rules, which Washington may try to close in the future.
Why is LineShine’s achievement important?
LineShine’s success is not just a technological achievement, but shows that China can make great progress in high-performance computing without relying on American chip companies. Although the debate continues regarding AI capability and actual computing power, it is certain that LineShine has once again brought China into the center of discussion in the global race for supercomputing.