The operating system is in fact Ubuntu Kylin

Jul 19, 2015 20:14 GMT  ·  By

Tianhe-2 is the most powerful supercomputer in the world, and it resides in China. Besides the awesome power that it commands, it's also running Ubuntu.

It's a well-known fact that most supercomputers in the world are running some sort of Linux distributions, and that doesn't happen by mistake. There is no Linux authority out there that lobbies to get the OS running on supercomputers. There are incredibly expensive pieces of machinery, and you want to have the best running them. If Linux is the best, you can't really blame the OS.

Tianhe-2 can be found in Guangzhou, at the National Super Computer Center. Its name also means MilkyWay-2. It's not a secret that the project has been funded by the Chinese government and that it commands an awesome power. Its number one title is provided by the famous TOP500 that indexes supercomputers.

Tianhe-2 runs Ubuntu

Besides the fact that Tianhe-2 is powered by a Linux operating system, we also know that it's using Ubuntu Kylin. Some of you might now know that Canonical is also working, for a couple of years already, on a Chinese version of their famous OS. It's already got a lot of traction, and it looks like the right people are noticing it.

The supercomputer has been built by NUDT, which stands for National University of Defense Technology, and it has 3,120,000 cores, with a theoretical peak of 54,902.4 TFlop/s. It uses 17,808 kW, the energy of a small city, it also has 1,024,000 GB, and mainly Intel Xeon E5-2692v2 12C 2.2GHz processors.

It's not known for how long Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) will be able to retain its title, but for now it's good to know that Linux is still in charge, although there is little doubt that it will change anytime soon. In fact, the second place on that list is Cray XK7, and it's also using Linux.