Sunway supercomputer, NRCPC China
Advances in basic computing science may not seem as exciting as other developments, but they are just as -- if not more -- important to future innovation.
China's Sunway Taihulight, designed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC), was the world's fastest supercomputer as of June 2016, said Yang Guangwen, Tsinghua University professor and director of the National Supercomputer Center at Wuxi.
With a Linpack benchmark rating of 93 petaflops, Sunway Taihulight is nearly three times as fast as the prior champion, China's Tianhe-2, which ran at 34 petaflops. The supercomputer was built with the Chinese processor chip ShenWei 26010; a 260-core, 64-bit RISC chip that exceeds 3 teraflops at maximum tilt.
It is expected to support manufacturing, life sciences, computer-aided engineering and weather forecasting.
Quantum Communication, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei's offering, quantum communication, has been heralded as the answer to the ever-growing menace of cyber theft.
His lab under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has achieved breakthroughs in metropolitan quantum communication networks by using fiber trusted relay-based inter-city quantum communication, and ultra-long distance quantum communication between satellite and ground.
Devices equipped with these technologies are expected to be ultra-secure as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated. Scientists say it will be impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack information in quantum communication.
Kirin 960 chipset, Huawei
China is the world's largest handset market, so it will come as no surprise that cellphone technology was present at the WIC.
The next-generation chipset Kirin 960, as described by Huawei vice president Ai Wei, provides faster processing speed, much more secure payment channels, better entertainment experiences, and cameras closer to the vision of the human eye.
It took ten years and a multi-national research team to design the latest chipset, Ai said.
"If we take the smartphone as an external organ, I wish it could first be 'the eye,' helping us to see this world clearer and better," he said.
