How to break through the calculation of ＂limit＂ from mental calculation to abacus calculation？
▲ On September 10th, the audience experienced "5G+ holographic remote interactive teaching" at the 2019 World Computer Congress product exhibition held in Changsha, Hunan. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Chen Si Khan)
Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, September 11th-From the ancient wisdom of mental arithmetic and abacus calculation to the creation of "China Speed" by "Galaxy", "Tianhe" and "Shenwei", China Calculation has attracted worldwide attention.
How to break the "limit" of computer technology? How to greet "industrial transformation" Where will computers go in the future? … … From September 9 to 11, 2019 World Computer Congress was held in Changsha, Hunan Province, the hometown of "Galaxy" and "Tianhe" supercomputing. Computer "big coffee" from all over the world talked about the future of computer technology and industry.
Calculate everything
The Root of Modern Science and Technology and the Source of Innovation
Through the "5G+ holographic remote interactive teaching", students can listen to teachers thousands of miles away and interact in real time. On the computer desktop supported by the "slap machine", the mouse can "play" the HD video of the cloud host in a second; Wearing "security glasses" can immediately identify people who come into sight … … At the 2019 World Computer Congress, the new application of digital technology shows the infinite possibilities of the future world.
The Zhouyi unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha records the ancient "algorithm" in the 2nd century BC, and the world’s earliest multiplication formula table unearthed from Liye Ancient City in Xiangxi, Hunan Province explains the "computational wisdom" in the Qin Dynasty. The abacus calculations used in Taiping Ancient Street and Jinggang Ancient Town in Changsha from ancient times can meet the four operations of big data, but now, the "Galaxy" and "Tianhe" supercomputing have repeatedly created new ones. … From mental calculation, abacus calculation to super-calculation, Hunan witnessed the leap of "China calculation" for thousands of years.
Computers have been widely used so far, but in just a few decades, human beings have been "deeply immersed" in the "ocean" of information.
"If the digital industry and digital technology are described as a rocket, computing power is the engine of this rocket." Cao Zhiping, senior vice president of Dell Technology Group, said.
At present, China has become the world’s largest computer manufacturing base, with the world’s largest computer market and application scenarios, and the computer industry ranks first in the world. In 2018, China’s computer industry achieved a main business income of 1.95 trillion yuan; The output of microcomputers is 310 million, including 170 million notebook computers; The output of servers reached 2.952 million units, a year-on-year increase of 34.6%. Lenovo, Huawei, Inspur and other key enterprises have steadily increased their share in the global market of notebook computers and servers.
"Mankind is entering the era of intelligence, networking and digitalization, and computer technology and industry have become the key to a local economic and social development. Let’s talk about computers now, not just the development of hardware products such as PC, notebook computer and server, but the whole computer industry ecology including all kinds of new computing and emerging applications. It is a solid foundation of modern science and technology and a source of innovation. " Liu Wenqiang, vice president of China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute, said.
Wu Manqing, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and general manager of China Electronics Technology Group Co., Ltd., believes that with the continuous development of information technology, the future world will be characterized by all-encompassing, virtual and real integration, collaborative sharing, and continuous compression of time and space, and will be more deeply "intelligent".
"Calculation power" means "productivity"
China calculates to climb "the top of the world"
It takes one year to complete the correlation analysis of genome-wide information with a scale of 500 people, and only three hours to use Tianhe-2. A train has more than 2800 parts, and the supercomputer can identify them all in less than one second, and judge whether there are cracks and other faults; It used to take two years to develop a large aircraft and do the aerodynamic test of the whole aircraft. Using supercomputer simulation, the related work can be completed in six days … …
With the rapid evolution and wide application of information technology, "computing power is productivity" has become a global consensus. As the carrier of computing power, computers have gradually become a new type of infrastructure, providing a strong impetus for global scientific and technological and economic development.
Although it started late, a series of supercomputers in China, from "Galaxy" to "Tianhe" and "Shenwei", are well-known "China brands" in the world. China Supercomputer not only achieved many firsts in independent innovation, but also climbed to the world’s "speed peak" for several generations — — "Tianhe" has won the fastest computing speed of supercomputers in the world for six times.
With the continuous development and improvement of the application system, supercomputers play an increasingly important role in supporting national scientific and technological innovation, serving the national innovation drive and local industrial development. "At present, supercomputing has achieved a series of innovative achievements in large-scale parallel computing in the fields of atmospheric and marine environment, numerical wind tunnel, medical information, genomics, pharmacy, electromagnetism and astronomy." Li Qiong, a researcher at Computer College of National University of Defense Technology, said.
Up to now, China has built six national supercomputing centers in Tianjin, Changsha, Guangzhou and other places, providing new kinetic energy for innovation-driven development. At present, supercomputing has gradually penetrated into all aspects of "calculating the sky", "calculating the land" and "calculating people" and has become a "super brain" to solve world problems.
"We are building a new generation of E-class computers in Tianhe, which will have the ability to calculate billions of times per second." Li Qiong told reporters.
"E-class supercomputer" is recognized as "the next crown of supercomputer". At present, the national "Thirteenth Five-Year" high-performance computing special project three E-class supercomputer prototype systems — — Shenwei E-class prototype, "Tianhe III" E-class prototype and Shuguang E-class prototype system have all been delivered.
Change is imminent.
Future development will be beyond imagination.
Developing a fine numerical weather forecasting system based on supercomputing platform can accurately predict the meteorological changes in the next 15 days and greatly increase the disaster preparation time for severe weather; Osteoporosis artificial intelligence screening robot can accurately "ask" osteoporosis and provide personalized diagnosis and treatment report within 3 to 5 minutes, with an accuracy rate of over 90%… …
Nowadays, the door of the digital economy era has been opened, and the core technology system in the ICT field based on the computer industry is accelerating reconstruction, which has become an important engine to drive industrial transformation and upgrading and economic and social development.
"Under the support of the rapid improvement of computing power, the continuous evolution of algorithms and the rapid growth of big data, intelligence has entered a period of rapid development. The deep integration, comprehensive innovation, comprehensive penetration and comprehensive application of intelligent technology will profoundly change human social life, change the world and open a new era of intelligence. " Qiao Yueshan, director of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.
Experts attending the meeting said that at present, the development of computer industry in China is showing a diversified trend, and a series of new disciplines have been formed simultaneously with developed countries abroad. These disciplines have developed rapidly, and many fields have reached or even surpassed the foreign level in technology research and development or industrialization in the same period.
At the same time, the computer industry itself is brewing new changes. Experts attending the meeting believe that the development of the global computer industry has once again reached a "crossroads", facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges.
On the one hand, the semiconductor process that affects the computing power is approaching the limit, Moore’s law is facing "failure", and the traditional centralized, distributed and cloud-based architecture is facing a bottleneck; On the other hand, there are many new applications in the computer field. The introduction of artificial intelligence technology and the cross-integration of information technology and economic and social aspects have brought more complex and novel application scenarios, and computers have ushered in a brand-new development space.
"At present, the development of global information technology has entered the era of mobile Internet from the era of desktop Internet. The traditional desktop system has gradually shrunk, and adapting to mobile application scenarios has become the general trend. How to make the computer ecosystem more contemporary has become an important issue in the new era." Rui Xiaowu, chairman of China Electronics and Information Industry Group, said.
What will computers look like in the future? For this problem, many interviewees at this World Computer Congress mentioned quantum computers and biological computers. The former is a physical device for processing and calculating quantum information. The latter is a biological computer that may "replace quantum computers." Therefore, many scientists say that from the development trend, the "future computer" will subvert all the existing inherent concepts of "machine" and is a "high-energy complex" combining electronic technology, optical technology, superconducting technology and electronic bionic technology.
"Computers are developing in the direction of ultra-high-speed, ultra-small, parallel processing and intelligence. In the future, computers will become more and more intelligent, and their perception ability, natural language processing ability, thinking and judgment ability will be gradually improved. The future development of computers will be beyond imagination. " Liu Wenqiang said. (Reporter Su Xiaozhou, Zhang Quan, Xie Ying, Wen Jinghua, Yang Jian, Yuan Yuting, Xi Min)