this is the Technology Report.China's Tianhe-2 supercomputerhas just been rated No. 1 on the top 500-- a respected list of the world's most powerful computers.Experts measured the supercomputer's performanceat 33.86 petaflops or quadrillions of operations per second.China's National University of Defense Technologydeveloped the supercomputer, which runs twiceas fast as the number two-rated Titan supercomputer.It belongs to the United States government'sOak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.Both Tianhe-2 and Titan are part of an ongoing raceto make supercomputers faster and more powerful.So what is a supercomputer?A basic personal computer has one microchipat the center of its operations.This Central Processing Unit, or CPU,executes a set of commands contained in a predesigned program.The first supercomputers had a few more CPUs.That number grew as microprocessorsbecame cheaper and faster.Andrew Grimshaw, a computer science professorat the University of Virginia explains:"Today, supercomputers are all what we call parallel machines.Instead of one CPU - central processing unit- they have thousands and thousands.And in the case of the Chinese machine,depending on how you count,millions of these central processing units."These parallel machines are made up ofmany individual computers called nodes.They are all positioned in one block.They use a lot of power, create a lot of heat,and require huge cooling systems.They also use programs differentfrom those used by ordinary computers.Professor Grimshaw says anyone with enough resourcescan build a supercomputer to solve problemsthat require millions of mathematical calculations.But that's not always necessary.A virtual supercomputer can be createdby networking individual computerswithin a university campus or company.These machines then process data during down time,when no one is using them."Those are very easy to run on virtual supercomputersbecause each problem is independent of all the othersand I can scatter these jobs out all around the place.We run these all the time at UVA."Professor Grimshaw says that entire ten years ago,engineers worked on making computers faster.Since then, he says, they have worked to createmore powerful parallel machines."It's transforming science and engineering,and it's going to continue to transform itin ways that I think most people don't fully grasp- how well we can model and simulate the world now."Professor Grimshaw saysthe increasing computing ability of supercomputersmakes the future of research very bright.And that's the Technology Report from VOA Learning English.