The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology speaks! Top-level design in this important field.

　　AI model is booming, and GPU card is hard to find … In the new era of digital economy, especially general artificial intelligence, the importance of computing power as a new productivity and basic production factor has become a consensus.

　　Focusing on the high-quality development of computing power, on August 19th, 2023 China Computing Power Conference was held in Yinchuan, Ningxia. Jin Zhuanglong, Party Secretary and Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. He introduced that as of the end of June this year, the total rack size of data centers in use in China exceeded 7.6 million standard racks, and the total computing power reached 197EFLOPS[ that is, 100 floating-point operations per second (= 10 18)], ranking second in the world. 130 trunk optical cables have been built around the nodes of computing hub, and the data transmission performance has been greatly improved.

　　Intelligent computing power demand

　　Is showing explosive growth.

　　At the main forum, Yu Xiaohui, president of China Institute of Information and Communication, interpreted the report "China Comprehensive Computing Index (2023)" released that day. Yu Xiaohui introduced that in the computing scale of 197EFLOPS, the general computing scale accounted for 74%, the intelligent computing scale accounted for 25%, and the intelligent computing scale increased by 60% year-on-year. The demand for intelligent computing power is showing an explosive growth trend.

　　In terms of storage capacity, Yu Xiaohui said that China’s data storage industry is developing at a high speed. By the end of June this year, China’s total storage capacity reached 10080EB, and the storage capacity increased by 23%, and the storage capacity maintained a high growth rate. Among them, the proportion of advanced storage capacity represented by all-flash storage technology continued to increase, and some industries exceeded 25%.

　　In terms of transportation capacity, the layout of computing network has been accelerated, and the construction of network infrastructure in China has been continuously improved. As of June this year, the total length of national optical cable lines reached 61.96 million kilometers, a net increase of 2.381 million kilometers over the end of last year; The number of Internet broadband access ports nationwide reached 1.11 billion, a net increase of 34.57 million over the end of last year; The construction of 5G networks has progressed steadily, with a total of 2.937 million 5G base stations.

　　According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of the year, China’s investment in new information infrastructure such as 5G and data centers increased by 13.1%, and investment in new integrated infrastructure such as industrial Internet and smart transportation increased by 34.1%.

　　The provinces with Top10 comprehensive computing power include: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hebei, Beijing, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Guizhou and Sichuan. Yu Xiaohui said that the industrial development momentum of Beishangguang and surrounding provinces is good, and the comprehensive computing power index is generally high. Western provinces such as Inner Mongolia and Guizhou are also among the top ten with their own advantages in terms of viability and environment.

　　Increase the supply of high-performance intelligent calculation

　　Jin Zhuanglong said that the layout of computing infrastructure should be further optimized in the future. In-depth implementation of the "14 th Five-Year Plan" information and communication industry development plan, accelerate the construction of a national integrated computing network national hub, focus on building a data center cluster, and promote the efficient complementarity and collaborative linkage of computing power between the east and the west. Further improve the top-level design of high-quality development of computing facilities, strengthen the overall planning of computing resources, increase the supply of high-performance intelligent computing, increase the reliability of computing networks, and improve the level of efficient and intensive utilization.

　　In terms of further improving the top-level design of high-quality development of computing facilities, Zhang Yunming, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed that it will speed up the introduction of policy measures to promote the high-quality development of computing infrastructure and provide strong policy guarantee for the development of computing infrastructure.

　　Jin Zhuanglong also mentioned that technological breakthroughs are fundamental to the development of computing power, and it is necessary to closely follow the global technological evolution and industrial development trends, strengthen systematic innovation, and firmly grasp the leading role in development. We will carry out the "strong computing power", give full play to the traction role of "chain owner" enterprises, focus on key links such as computing, network and storage, gather scientific and technological strength, increase investment in research and development, break through a number of landmark technical products and programs as soon as possible, and accelerate the application of new technologies and new products.

　　Yang Jie, Chairman of China Mobile, mentioned in his speech that the computing infrastructure is changing from "general computing-oriented" to "general computing, intelligent computing, supercomputing and quantum computing integration" to support the diversified, personalized and extreme computing needs. China Mobile is currently building the largest single intelligent computing center in Asia, with a computing power scale of 5EFLOPS.

　　Liang Hua, chairman of Huawei, believes that AI-oriented intelligent computing power is the key driving engine of digital and intelligent innovation, and has become the main driving force for computing power growth. He suggested that accelerating the development of intelligent computing infrastructure, further consolidating the base of intelligent computing power, and stimulating the effectiveness of AI computing power empowerment are important starting points and the only way to promote the high-quality development of computing power industry.

　　During the 2023 China Computing Conference, Lenovo Group released a brand-new AI computing strategy. Chen Zhenkuan, vice president of Lenovo Group and general manager of the server division of China Infrastructure Business Group, said: "Lenovo will fully invest and continuously innovate to build an AI-oriented computing infrastructure. At least half of our R&D investment in infrastructure will be invested in AI. "

　　Computational power scheduling faces challenges.

　　In order to use computing power well, besides optimizing the structure and increasing the supply of intelligent computing power, it is also necessary to further improve the construction of computing power network. Gao Wen, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, said frankly in his speech that in order for computing power to exert its maximum utility and have a direct impact on GDP, it is necessary to solve two technical problems: first, direct connection, including high-speed direct connection and ultra-wideband wide direct connection; The second is computing power scheduling. To solve these problems, all parties need to work together.

　　"There are three main types of computing power, the first is cloud computing power, the second is intelligent computing power, and the third is super computing power. These three types of computing power are completely different architectures and different types of users, so now they can only be classified and transported during transmission and scheduling, that is to say, they are divided into three different computing powers for transmission. " Gao Wen said that how to dispatch three different types of hybrid computing power is a challenge at this stage. "According to the logic of the power grid, thermal power, solar power generation and wind power can also be transmitted from the power grid, and computing power will also be mixed in the future."

　　Wang Xiaoyun, chief scientist of China Mobile, also mentioned this issue in an interview with china securities journal. She said: "We hope to provide a new computing power supply model, build a unified computing power network, and integrate social computing power, including intelligent computing, super-computing, and even some idle computing power into this network, just like the power grid, so that users can get it immediately."

　　At the main forum of the 2023 China Computing Conference, China Mobile, together with a number of supercomputing centers, intelligent computing centers and cloud service providers, launched the largest "Hundred Rivers" computing power grid-connected operation in China, trying to build a computing power grid-connected platform with the most comprehensive types, the largest scale and the widest coverage. According to reports, at present, it has access to social computing power of more than 1.9EFLOPS, which complements China Mobile’s own computing power and has a total computing power supply capacity of more than 10EFLOPS.