China takes the lead in supercomputing

China has taken the top speed ranking in supercomputing for the first time without using U.S. semiconductor technology.

Its prior No. 1 system used chips from Intel Corp.

The latest machine, dubbed Sunway TaihuLight, is roughly five times faster than the leading U.S. system, which now ranks third.

Supercomputers have long been used by governments for cracking codes and nuclear weapons development, as well as for civilian uses like climate forecasting, oil exploration and designing products such as cars and drugs.

Read more from The Wall Street Journal.