China's Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe-2 are still the world's fastest and second-fastest machines, but America's Titan was squeezed into fourth place by an upgraded Swiss system, according to the latest edition of the biannual T0P500 list of supercomputers released Monday.

Sunway TaihuLight, designed and manufactured in China, was developed by the National Super Computer Center (NSCC) in Guangzhou Province. It was described by the T0P500 list as "far and away the most powerful number-cruncher on the planet."

Top 10 of the latest TOP500 supercomputer list. /TOP500 Screenshot‍

The list, based on the industry-standard Linpack benchmarks of computing power, is updated every June and November.

According to the compiling committee, the list is important in that it tracks historical performance of supercomputers and predicts their future development.

China's National Super Computer Center introduces Sunway at the World Internet Conference in China's Wuzhen in November 2016. /VCG Photo

Sunway was followed in second place by Tianhe-2, which was also a creation of the NSCC.

This is the third consecutive year Sunway has won the top title among 500 of the world's fastest computers. The United States failed to make it into the top three for the first time in 20 years.