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| This TV grab taken on June 17, 2013 shows the Tianhe-2 supercomputer developed by Chinas National University of Defense Technology. |
When it comes to supercomputers, China is the reigning world champion.
In its bi-annual rankings of the world's most powerful computing machines, Top500 named China's Tianhe-22 the top supercomputer in the world for the fifth consecutive time.
The Tianhe-2, which was developed by China's National University of Defense Technology, performs at a rate of 33.86 petaflops per second. One petaflop equals around one quadrillion calculations per second.
China's influence on supercomputers is attributed to Lenovo, which has three computers on the top 500 list, along with 20 more jointly labeled with IBM.
The United States holds the No. 2 spot with Titan, a computer operating at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. While it operates at slightly more than half the power of China's top computer, Titan still has an impressive 17.59 petaflops per second and has the distinction of being one of the most energy-efficient computers on the list, according to Top500.
The latest list, which will be presented today at the 2015 International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, also included its first ever supercomputer from the Middle East to crack the top ten.
The Shaheen II, based at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, is the seventh most powerful machine on the list with an impressive 5.536 petaflops per second.
The supercomputer cost the university about $80 million to buy, build and install and is 25 times more powerful than the machine it replaced, according to the BBC.
The Shaheen II is used for a variety of engineering and renewable energy projects.
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