The nation’s new supercomputer, Taiwania 3 (台灣杉三號), has been inaugurated to support research related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Tuesday, calling on academics and businesses to apply for free cloud services.
Taiwania 3 was developed by the National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) at a cost of about NT$400 million (US$14.4 million), the center said.
The center is one of eight institutes under the National Applied Research Laboratories, which is overseen by the ministry.
As the pandemic has severely affected people’s lives, the center asked itself what a supercomputer could do for the nation, NCHC Director-General Shepherd Shi (史曉斌) said in a video.
Shi, a former IBM engineer, was accompanied by former vice president and epidemiologist Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), and other experts in the video.
The center last year announced a special program allowing academics, researchers and businesses to apply for free cloud services amid the pandemic.
The program has supported many businesses to develop new medical applications, such as an electronic stethoscope developed by Heroic Faith Medical Science that can reduce the risk of virus transmission between medical personnel and patients, the center said.
Graphen Taiwan applied to use the center’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools to chart the genetic evolution of different COVID-19 virus strains, it added.
The program’s resources are upgraded with the commissioning of Taiwania 3, as well as assistance from Taiwan Web Service Corp, the center said, calling on those interested in using its resources to submit applications by July 31.
While there is no limits on projects, applicants can tender proposals related to medical applications, pandemic regulation, policy communications, stabilization of people’s livelihood, data mining and image recognition, the center said.
The center’s Taiwania supercomputer series has three iterations: Taiwania, Taiwania 2 and Taiwania 3.
Taiwania 3 can perform 2.7 quadrillion floating-point operations per second (petaflops), higher than Taiwania’s 1.7 petaflops, the center said.
While Taiwania 3 and Taiwania support high-performance computing, Taiwania 2 is better equipped for AI-related computing, with its computing performance reaching 9 petaflops, it said.
In the TOP500 List of global supercomputers announced in November last year, Taiwania 2 was ranked No. 28, followed by Taiwania 3 at No. 181 and Taiwania at No. 497.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
A man walks past elementary school artworks at the Taipei Lantern Festival in Ximen District yesterday, the first day of the event. The festival is to run from 5pm to 10pm through March 15.
RSS