Computer researchers in China using domestically made graphics processors have achieved a near-tenfold boost in performance over powerful US supercomputers that rely on Nvidia’s cutting-edge hardware, according to a peer-reviewed study.
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The accomplishment points to possible unintended consequences of Washington’s escalating tech sanctions while challenging the dominance of American-made chips, long considered vital for advanced scientific research.
The researchers said that innovative software optimisation techniques enabled them to improve efficiency gains in computers powered by Chinese-designed graphics processing units (GPUs) to outperform US supercomputers in certain scientific computations.
While sceptics caution that software tweaks alone cannot bridge hardware gaps indefinitely, the development underscores Beijing’s broader strategy to mitigate “chokepoint” risks in critical technologies.
Scientists often rely on simulations to model real-world circumstances, such as designs to defend against flooding or urban waterlogging. But such reproductions, especially large scale, high-resolution simulations, demand substantial time and computational resources, limiting the broader application of such an approach.
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The challenge for Chinese scientists is even more daunting. For hardware, production of advanced GPUs like the A100 and H100 are dominated by foreign manufacturers. On the software side, US-based Nvidia has restricted its CUDA software ecosystem from running on third-party hardware, thus hindering the development of independent algorithms.
In search of a breakthrough, Professor Nan Tongchao with the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering at Hohai University in Nanjing, began exploring a “multi-node, multi-GPU” parallel computing approach based on domestic CPUs and GPUs. The results of their research were published in the Chinese Journal of Hydraulic Engineering on January 3.