The state-of-the-art Sunway E-class supercomputer has been in use in Jinan, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/jinantimes.com]

China's supercomputing industry has made rapid developments in recent decades. The country has topped the world in the number of supercomputers for five consecutive years, a recent report said.

According to the Internet Data Center, the supercomputing market is expected to reach $44 billion by 2020, driving the industrial scale with a value of $6 trillion.

Supercomputing has seen widespread applications in weather forecasts, new drug development, oil exploration, and smart city information safety in China.

Jinan's supercomputing industry has also seen burgeoning development. The revenue of the new generation of information technology industry focusing on artificial intelligence and big data exceeded 300 billion yuan ($42.85 billion) in 2018, becoming an important growth driver of the city's economy.

Tan Wei, deputy secretary general of the Jinan municipal government, gave an overview of the general status of the supercomputing industry in China and Jinan, eastern Shandong province at a news conference on Dec 24.

The city enjoys a strong industry foundation in developing supercomputing. The Jinan Supercomputing Center Science and Technology Park began operations on May 9, becoming one of the few national quadrillion supercomputing centers in China.

The state-of-the-art Sunway E-class supercomputer with a speed of up to 10 quadrillion calculations per second has been in use.

Jinan also leads the way in the applications of smart manufacturing, smart robotics, smart medical treatment, and smart transportation.

To date, Jinan is home to more than 1,000 companies in the fields of the new generation of information technology, healthcare, high-end manufacturing, electromagnetic simulation, and modern marine economy, which are all among Shandong's top 10 industries.

According to the city's plan, the operating income of the big data and new generation of information technology industry is expected to surpass 500 billion yuan by 2022, becoming the city's leading industry.