China's National Supercomputer Center said yesterday it is planning in the next few years to release a prototype of a supercomputer that will be 1,000 times more powerful than its ground-breaking Tianhe-1A.

The "exascale" computer — one that is capable of performing at least a billion billion calculations per second — will make its debut in 2017 or 2018, said Meng Xiangfei, head of the center’s applications department.

Exascale computing is considered the next frontier in the development of supercomputers.

The Tianhe-1A was recognized as the world’s fastest computing system when it was launched in 2010, though it was superseded by the Tianhe-2.

However, the former is still widely used, as computer scientists have found it challenging to run contemporary applications at their optimum speed on the faster machine, Meng said.

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