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.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS