Forget GPUs China unveils 2 ExaFLOPS supercomputer using only CPUs, packing 47,000 processors into 92 compute cabinets as it looks to supersede the US once again
Date:
Mon, 04 May 2026 17:50:00 +0000
Description:
Chinas Lingsheng supercomputer aims for exascale performance using a CPU-only architecture, though its claims remain unverified for now.
FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Lingsheng system targets two exaFLOPS using only central processing units CPU-only architecture challenges GPU-dominated supercomputing industry standards System design integrates high-bandwidth memory and high-speed interconnect networks A Chinese supercomputing center has announced plans for a machine that would reach two exaFLOPS using nothing but central processors.
The Lingsheng system, unveiled at an April 2026 conference in Shenzhen, would pack 47,000 processors into just 92 compute cabinets. Lu Yutong, director of the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen and the system's chief designer, explained that the hardware and software stack is "fully independently controllable." Article continues below You may like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warns of "enormous" China compute capacity No Nvidia, No AMD, No Intel, No ARM: Meta plans inference-led RISC-y future without friends as
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H20 A fundamentally different architectural strategy The exascale machines in the industry at the moment heavily rely on GPU accelerators or specialized hardware.
This makes the CPU-only approach a major departure from established global trends.
The system leverages domestically produced high-performance CPUs alongside on-chip high-bandwidth memory and high-speed interconnect networks.
It also incorporates 3D floating orthogonal computing and full liquid cooling to manage thermal output. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features
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According to the announcement, the Lingsheng platform achieves breakthroughs in six major technical areas: architecture, performance, energy consumption, programming, scalability, and reliability.
The system supports exascale computing power with exascale storage and petascale communication, and employs what officials described as the world's largest-scale centralized liquid cooling technology.
A pilot verification phase uses 100 Huawei Kunpeng servers built on Arm
-based Taishan cores, totaling 12,800 cores. What to read next GMKTec demos Openclaw-capable mini PC that reaches 180 TOPS Huawei debuts its Atlas 950 AI SuperPoD at MWC 2026, taking the AI data center fight to Nvidia and AMD Intel and SambaNova introduce a hardware system combining GPUs, RDUs, and CPUs
When scaled to full production, the same system design would incorporate
1,580 blade servers using x86 CPUs with 101,120 cores and a theoretical peak above 10 petaflops.
The complete infrastructure also features 36 network cabinets supporting a million-port interconnect.
It will also feature 650PB of planned storage distributed across 428 nodes
and 67 liquid-cooled storage cabinets that deliver 10TB/s of bandwidth.
The current fastest computer in the world , the U.S. Department of Energy's
El Capitan, runs on 44,544 AMD MI300A APUs, integrating CPU and GPU silicon
on a single package.
If Lingshengs sustained performance of 2 exaFLOPS is achieved, it will
surpass El Capitan's measured Linpack score of 1.809 exaFLOPS.
On the flip side, the 2 exaFLOPS figure for the Lingsheng system is a theoretical number, but El Capitan already has a theoretical value of 2.79 exaFLOPS.
Therefore, the assertion of surpassing the fastest computer in the world does not appear attainable when comparing theoretical values against each other. Unanswered questions and unproven capabilities Several critical questions remain unanswered regarding the Lingsheng system, primarily because no benchmark data exists for the machine.
Although China asserts that this system will rely on no non-Chinese vendors, the country's domestic x86 options remain limited to Zhaoxin and Hygon.
None of these domestic alternatives has demonstrated processors that can compete with current-generation parts from either Intel or AMD.
The announcement also failed to name specific suppliers for the production system and provided no operational timeline for its completion.
On the potential application side, the technology spans nine fields,
including remote sensing, materials science, bioinformatics, meteorology, pharmaceuticals, oil exploration, artificial intelligence, life sciences, and electromagnetic simulation.
One research team reported achieving parallel scalability of 81% for first-principles calculations involving 100 million atoms.
Another group claimed that virtual screening of compounds on a trillion-scale could improve efficiency by 1,000 times through a combination of AI and reinforcement learning.
However, these remain theoretical claims until a functioning machine produces verifiable benchmark results.
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https://www.techradar.com/pro/forget-gpus-china-unveils-2-exaflops-supercomput er-using-only-cpu-packing-47-000-processors-into-92-compute-cabinets-as-it-loo ks-to-supercede-the-us-once-again
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