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.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS