China's largest container-like computing facility, Wuhan Supercomputing Center, was recently officially connected to the national network and is in the final stage before it is launched. 

Located in central China's Hubei Province, the center will offer computing power of 50 petaflops in the initial stage, equivalent to 100,000 high-performance computers operating simultaneously, and is expected to expand eventually to 200 petaflops. 

Computing power roughly refers to the ability to process data. 

"The project is expected to be put into trial operation on September 30 and will provide computing power support services for some enterprises and research institutions, including universities," said Gong Zheng, representative of the Wuhan Supercomputing Center project. 

The center adopted a new way of using container-like modular prefabricated boxes with integrated circuits and pipes laid in the box prior to being joined together, which shortens construction periods by one-third. 

After being connected to the national computing network, the center will tap into the scientific research advantages of Wuhan universities, such as distributed computing, mass storage and artificial intelligence computing power, to build a data center and computing power service hub in the central region of China. 

"After connecting to the national computing network, the center will help realize the scheduling and coordination of the computing power resources between different regions. The center will also provide services for major scientific research in other provinces and meet some strategic needs in the future," said Liu Junyi, a scientist working for the Wuhan Supercomputing Center project. 

China's national computing network serves the country's strategy of channeling more computing resources from the eastern areas to less developed western regions. 

Computing platforms in cities, including Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, Shaoguan in Guangdong Province, Jinan and Qingdao in Shandong Province, have connected to the national network. 

Although a latecomer in the high-performance computing field, China now tops the world with around 35 percent of the world's top 500 most powerful supercomputers and is quickly building a network of national supercomputing centers, where people can use computing power as a service, just like water and electricity. 

The country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) also spells out plans to construct 10 exascale computing systems by the end of 2025.