Empowering the real economy and benefiting thousands of industries

The "computing power" of data centers is constantly increasing

Jin Chen, reporter of this newspaper

From space exploration to online shopping and taxi, the importance of computing power in production and life has become increasingly prominent, providing impetus for the digital development of thousands of industries. As the physical bearer of computing power, data centers play the role of the "central brain" for receiving, processing, storing and forwarding data streams, and are key information infrastructure related to digital development.

The "Overall Layout Plan for Digital China Construction" recently issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council proposes to consolidate the foundation of digital China construction, systematically optimize the layout of computing power infrastructure and improve the overall level of application infrastructure. Industry insiders said that the accelerated layout of the national data center will further consolidate the foundation for the high-quality development of China's digital economy and contribute to the construction of digital China.

Construction of the national computing power hub began

Astronauts take the "space ladder" to the space station, lunar rovers speed through craters, and fighters travel freely among meteorite debris... In the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", the audience was impressed by the exquisite and shocking special effects scenes.

According to reports, part of the special effects production of "The Wandering Earth 2" was completed at the Guizhou Gui'an Supercomputing Center. Each frame in these special effects takes several hours to achieve the desired effect, and without the powerful computing power of the supercomputing center, it may take 10 years from the beginning of the film to the screen.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the scale of China's computing power industry has grown rapidly in recent years, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 30%, ranking second in the world in terms of computing power. The continuous improvement of China's computing power level is closely related to the improvement and growth rate of national data center construction in recent years, especially the rapid growth of the scale of large-scale data centers.

The national "8th Five-Year Plan" clearly states that it is necessary to "accelerate the construction of a national integrated big data center system, strengthen the overall planning and intelligent scheduling of computing power, and build a number of national hub nodes and big data center clusters", and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments have also issued policy documents such as the "National Integrated Big Data Center Collaborative Innovation System Computing Power Hub Implementation Plan" to support and standardize the development of the data center industry. At present, the national computing power hub nodes in eight places, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, have all started construction, and the important computing power foundation supporting the vigorous development of the digital economy is gradually taking shape.

Supporting Digital China's "Highway"

In the high-performance computing public service platform located in Inner Mongolia and Linger New District, server signal lights flash, parameters in the central control room change rapidly, and supercomputers equivalent to 10,<> ordinary computer computing power are in full operation, providing complex computing services for scientific research teams in Beijing.

How can "invisible" and "intangible" computing power be delivered from data centers in Inner Mongolia to users in Beijing in milliseconds? Xu Xinghai, project leader of the Inner Mongolia High Performance Computing Public Service Platform, said that the Linger New District, where the platform is located, realizes high-speed data direct connection with 18 major cities in China through a dedicated Internet data channel.

On the basis of direct connection of supercomputing data, the national supercomputing Internet project is also steadily advancing. The so-called supercomputing Internet is to build an integrated supercomputing power network and service platform with the capabilities and resources of all parties such as computing power supply, users and operation services in the Internet industry ecosystem. Through this project, supercomputing centers and data centers in various places will realize the interconnection of data and computing power and integrate them into a network of computing power convergence.

According to Pan Jingshan, deputy director of the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, the supercomputing Internet can realize the unified scheduling of resources between regions through the interconnection of supercomputing resources, and solve the problem of imbalance between supply and demand space of computing power. "Through the supercomputing Internet, computing power can be transmitted to various cities, enterprises, and thousands of households, so that everyone can use supercomputing power conveniently."

Industry insiders said that with the landing of the supercomputing Internet project, the vision of computing power like hydropower "ready-to-use" will become a reality. It is expected that by the end of 2025, the national supercomputing Internet will form an overall layout with advanced technology, innovative models and perfect ecology, and become a "highway" to support the construction of digital China.

Drive innovative applications at scale

Under the background of the rapid development of global data centers, China's data center industry is also constantly upgrading, evolving in the direction of innovation-driven, computing-network collaboration, and comprehensive empowerment, becoming a new engine driving the digital development of all walks of life.

"Sea of clouds, sunrise, cuckoos, spirit monkeys... It's as if you're around, at your fingertips! Recently, at the "Shuyou Emei" experience center located at the foot of Emei Mountain in Leshan, Sichuan, Chongqing tourist Li Fei "personally experienced" the spring scenery of the main peak of Emei Mountain through VR equipment. According to reports, the "Digital Tour Emei" Experience Center relies on the Leshan Smart Cultural Tourism Big Data Center, through VR, AR, naked-eye 3D, holographic imaging and other intelligent means, allowing tourists to "immerse" in the historical changes and four seasons of Emei Mountain. In addition, the scenic spot has also launched 5G cloud live broadcast, AI smart tour and other services through the big data center to provide tourists with a new experience of smart tourism.

In the list of typical cases of national new data centers in 2022 recently announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 33 new data centers, including Leshan Smart Cultural Tourism Big Data Center, were selected, covering scientific research, cultural tourism, transportation, new media and other fields. Since they were put into operation, these new data centers have innovated around the application fields of smart government, smart healthcare, smart city, and smart finance, injecting strong momentum into the rapid development of digital industries such as 5G technology, Internet +, and cloud computing.

Experts pointed out that relevant departments should continue to support national data centers to promote new technologies and large-scale applications, promote the acceleration of traditional data centers with network and cloud computing, accelerate the evolution to new data centers, better support the combination of data center construction and industry, and empower high-quality economic and social development. (People's Daily Overseas Edition)