Tianhe-2 facts for kids
Tianhe-2 is a very powerful supercomputer made in China. It was built by the National University of Defense Technology. This amazing machine can do over 33,862 trillion calculations every second!
For a while, Tianhe-2 was known as the fastest computer in the world. It was even twice as fast as its older sibling, Tianhe-1. The name "Tianhe" means "milky way" in Chinese.
This supercomputer was finished in 2013, earlier than planned. It helps scientists with many important tasks. For example, it can study physics, like how things burn (combustion) or how magnets work (magnetism). It also helps create models of Earth's atmosphere. Some people even thought it might be too powerful for many jobs!
What Makes Tianhe-2 So Fast?
Tianhe-2 is incredibly powerful. It can perform 33,862 trillion operations each second. It might even be able to do 54,900 trillion operations per second!
This supercomputer uses more than three million processor cores. Think of these as the brains of the computer. It needs a lot of power, using 17.8 million watts of electricity. Building Tianhe-2 cost about 2.4 billion yuan.
World Records
Tianhe-2 has been recognized as a top supercomputer many times. It was ranked number one on the Top500 list twice. This happened in June 2013 and again in November 2013.
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