China's LineShine supercomputer dethrones US' El Capitan, secures first place in Top 500 list — first machine in the rankings to sustain more than 2 ExaFLOPS of double-precision performance using only CPUs

China's LineShine supercomputer has surpassed the US's El Capitan to become the world's fastest supercomputer, achieving over 2 ExaFLOPS using only CPUs. This milestone highlights China's advancements in high-performance computing and demonstrates the growing competitiveness of CPU-based supercomputers in traditional HPC tasks. While it excels in scientific computing, its lower efficiency in AI workloads indicates ongoing challenges in balancing performance and power consumption.

• LineShine is the first CPU-only supercomputer to exceed 2 ExaFLOPS, marking a significant milestone in HPC performance.
• The system employs semi-custom Arm-based processors, showcasing China's progress in CPU architecture and supercomputing technology.
• Despite top performance in traditional HPC tasks, its lower power efficiency and AI capabilities suggest areas for future optimization.