A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower.

The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings.

It's probably a safe bet that the US has classified super-computers buried within deep black defense related programs that would readily trounce this latest Chinese super-computer. So, it might be a bit premature to warn about a loss of computational superiority to China. To read the rest of the article, click here.