TIANJIN — China is planning to develop a prototype of an exascale computer, considered the next frontier of supercomputers, by the end of 2017, according to a developer on Jan 17.

“A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country’s first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognized as the world’s fastest in 2010,” said Zhang Ting, application engineer with the Tianjin-based National Supercomputer Center, when attending the sixth session of the 16th Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress on Jan 17.

Exascale computers are capable of at least 1 quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Zhang said that using the exascale computer for cloud computing and big data applications, China could spur ahead with many key innovation and high-tech programs.

In June 2016, China revealed its fastest new supercomputer — the Subway TaihuLight — with a peak performance of 124.5 petaflops, the world’s first system to exceed 100 petaflops.

China has been steadily building its supercomputing capacity, and independently developed all key technology including microprocessors.

Zhang said the next-generation exascale computer will not only lead in calculation speed, but also in data transmission efficiency.