National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin

National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin
Name	National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin
Native name	天津国家超级计算中心
Established	2013
Location	Tianjin Binhai New Area
Director	Liu Jie (example)

National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin is a Chinese high-performance computing facility located in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, established to provide petascale and exascale-class resources for scientific research, industrial design, and national projects. The center hosts large-scale supercomputing systems, supports multidisciplinary programs, and connects to national networks and international research infrastructures to accelerate computational science and engineering.

History and Development

The center was developed amid initiatives such as the 863 Program, National Medium- and Long-Term Plan for Science and Technology Development, Made in China 2025, Belt and Road Initiative, and provincial strategies from Tianjin Municipal People's Government, with planning influenced by institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhejiang University. Early procurement and deployment drew on vendors including Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Huawei Technologies, Sugon (Dawning), Inspur, Lenovo Group, and collaborations with research labs such as the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), and National High Technology Research and Development Program. Milestones echoed broader developments around the Sunway TaihuLight project, the Tianhe series programs, and the international timeline marked by systems like Fugaku, Summit (supercomputer), and Sierra (supercomputer). Policy frameworks from the Ministry of Science and Technology (China), National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology influenced governance, while regional partners including Binhai New Area Administrative Committee and Tianjin University provided local support.

Facilities and Architecture

The center's campus sits within the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area and features data halls, cooling plants, power substations, and disaster-resilient design elements inspired by projects at Shenzhen Bay Science and Technology Center, Beijing Aerospace City, and Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. Infrastructure integrates networks such as China Education and Research Network (CERNET), China Unicom, China Telecom, and the National Research and Education Network (NREN) backbone, with connections to international exchanges like GEANT and Internet2. Mechanical and electrical systems reference standards from International Organization for Standardization, China Compulsory Certification, and best practices used in facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Architectural features were coordinated with urban planners from Binhai Planning and Design Institute and consultants who have worked on complexes including Guangzhou Science City and Suzhou Industrial Park.

Supercomputing Systems and Performance

Installed systems have included clusters built with processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel Xeon Phi, ARM architecture designs similar to collaborations with Fujitsu, accelerators from NVIDIA Tesla and Huawei Kunpeng, and interconnects resembling InfiniBand and proprietary technologies used in Cray Inc. and HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) systems. Benchmarking followed High Performance Linpack (HPL), High Performance Conjugate Gradients (HPCG), and community standards set by the TOP500 project, alongside energy metrics like Green500. Performance targets aligned with national objectives exemplified by China's 13th Five-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Development and international comparisons to Titan (supercomputer), K computer, and European HPC Joint Undertaking. Storage solutions referenced architectures from Panasas, Dell EMC, and parallel file systems such as Lustre and GPFS.

Research and Applications

Research programs span computational fluid dynamics projects tied to Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), climate modeling connected to China Meteorological Administration, materials simulation with groups from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, and bioinformatics collaborations with China National GeneBank and Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI). Applications include virtual prototyping used by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), energy system optimization related to State Grid Corporation of China, seismic analysis in cooperation with China Earthquake Administration, and modeling for National Natural Science Foundation of China grants. Interdisciplinary initiatives interface with partners such as Fudan University, Nankai University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Beihang University, South China University of Technology, and international projects with teams at MIT, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, and Max Planck Society.

Management and Funding

Operational oversight involves stakeholders including Tianjin Municipal People's Government, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and provincial development authorities, with funding streams from public investment programs like the National Science and Technology Major Project and contributions by corporate partners such as China Mobile, China CITIC Group, and industrial consortia. Management practices draw on governance models from National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen and National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, with procurement and auditing aligned to procedures used by State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), Ministry of Finance (China), and standards applied at National Audit Office reviews.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The center maintains bilateral and multilateral research ties with universities including University of California, Berkeley, Caltech, Imperial College London, University of Tokyo, and Seoul National University, and industry partnerships with Siemens, BASF, Airbus, and Bosch. Collaborative projects involve consortia such as European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and regional initiatives tied to China-ASEAN science programs. Data-sharing agreements and joint ventures mirror arrangements used by National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and EuroHPC infrastructures.

Outreach and Education

Education and workforce development programs connect to Tianjin University of Technology, Xinjiang Technical University (example), Nankai University, and professional training modeled after workshops by SC (The International Conference for High Performance Computing) and tutorials run by ACM and IEEE Computer Society. Public engagement includes seminars partnering with China Science and Technology Museum, science festivals akin to Beijing Science Festival, and internship programs aligned with national talent plans such as Thousand Talents Program and provincial scholarship schemes.

Category:Supercomputer sites