By Chen Junyi
At the Gui’an Supercomputing Center, which is located in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou province, over 600 servers are running at full speed, supplying constant computing power to cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, creating a vibrant ambiance with constant hum of cooling fans and flickering indicator lights.
As one of the eight major hubs of China’s national integrated computing power network, Guizhou is actively pursuing the integrated development of data storage and computing, with a particular focus on intelligent computing.
It aims to enhance the capacity in computing power supply, effectively match the supply and demand of computing power within the province and elsewhere, and better utilize computing power and localize the computing industry, so as to establish a support base serving the whole country.
Guizhou launched its plans to develop data centers ten years ago. It boasts numerous natural advantages for developing the computing industry, such as safe geological conditions, reliable power supply, and low average temperatures. China’s three telecommunication operators, namely China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom, have all set up data centers here, making it the first province in China to host data centers of all the three.
After a decade of development, Guizhou is currently home to 47 data centers, either under construction or in operation, including 25 super-large and large data centers, most of which are located in the Gui’an New Area.
The Gui’an New Area is known for its flat terrain and an annual average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. The region enjoys 99.5 percent of days with good air quality throughout the year, thereby serving as a natural air conditioner and oxygen bar.
The power usage effectiveness (PUE)of data centers in the region, a metric for energy efficiency, is lower than 1.2, which is at the forefront of all green data centers across the country. It is also one of the areas in China where data centers boast the lowest energy consumption and the longest equipment lifespan.
“As the carrier of computing power, data centers are equipped to support high-performance application scenarios by leveraging advanced computational capabilities and large-scale data processing power through the use of various hardware components such as servers and graphics cards,” said Peng Benqian, head of the Gui’an Supercomputing Center and director of the technology research and development department of Gui’an New Area Science and Technology Innovation Industries Development Co., Ltd., the company that runs the center.
In the past, most data centers in Guizhou were primarily focused on storage. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), Guizhou is advancing intelligent computing, which forms the basis of AI development. The data centers are rapidly transforming from mere “storage centers” to integrated “storage and computing ones.”
The Gui’an Supercomputing Center, the first of its kind in Guizhou, was put into operation at the end of 2020. “We have more than 600 servers, and the peak computing power has reached 130 petaflops,” Peng said.
“It would take nearly 600 years to create special effects rendering for a 3D animated film with a regular computer. However, the whole process can be completed within 3 months at our center,” he said.
In addition to locally built computing power centers, top internet companies such as Huawei, Tencent, and NetEase have established superlarge computing centers and intelligent computing centers in Guizhou. Besides, many banks have set up their financial data centers in the province.
Guizhou has become one of the regions in China with the strongest intelligent computing capabilities. By the end of July 2024, its computing power had reached 40.55 Eflops (a measurement unit used to determine a computer’s speed), with intelligent computing power amounting to 37.578 Eflops, accounting for over 90 percent.
Just like other commodities, computing power cannot be on a perfect supply-demand balance. Idle computing resources will enter a public computing resource pool and be scheduled by the Guizhou branch of China’s national integrated computing power network to efficiently connect the resource side and the demand side.
The transmission and trading of computing power rely on network infrastructure. Guizhou has established direct connections with 38 cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.The computing power can meet the huge demand of the “East data, west computing”project, a key part of China’s digital infrastructure which aims to coordinate the computing capabilities of the country’s eastern regions, where the need for computing is high, with inland western regions like Guizhou, where abundant renewable resources are optimal for building data centers, according to Zhang Jie, head of the business department of Gui’an New Area Data Service Technology Co., Ltd.
Meanwhile, Guizhou is leveraging its computing power to drive industrial development and extend the industrial chain. With the support of computing power, many local companies have begun to explore new opportunities.
Guizhou Tuzhi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a technology company specializing in geospatial big data application and development and a professional provider of real-time spatial-temporal information services integrating air, space, and ground data. With over 8 years of experience, the company has witnessed the evolution of Guizhou’s big data industry.
“The ecosystem of the big data industry in Guizhou is getting better and better, with refined computing power support, industry applications and data transactions. We have seen increasing productivity and expanding business scope,” Huang said.
Photo shows the Gui’an Supercomputing Center. (Photo from Eyesnews)
Staff members of the Gui’an Supercomputing Center check the operation of equipment. (Photo by Liu Qing)
Photo shows a data center of Huawei Cloud in Gui’an New Area, Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou province. (Photo by Jia Zhi/People’s Daily Online)
Photo shows the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2024 held in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou province, August 28, 2024. (Photo by Jia Zhi/People’s Daily Online)
中国贵州：打造面向全国的算力保障基地
陈隽逸
风噪声不绝于耳，指示灯闪烁不停，在位于贵州省贵安新区的贵安超级计算中心内，600余台服务器高速运转，将算力源源不断输送到深圳、广州、武汉等地。
作为中国一体化算力网络国家枢纽八大节点之一，贵州按照“存算一体、智算优先”思路，提升算力综合供给能力，激发省内外算力需求与算力供给高效匹配，提升算力使用率和产业本地化水平，打造面向全国的算力保障基地。
早在10年前，贵州就开始布局数据中心建设。地质安全、用电可靠、平均气温低……多项天然优势吸引了中国电信、中国移动、中国联通的数据中心落地，令贵州成为三大运营商数据中心“集中落户”的首个地区。
经过10年的发展，目前贵州在建及投运的数据中心47个，其中超大型、大型数据中心25个，大部分集中在贵安新区。贵安新区地势平坦，年平均气温15℃，空气质量优良率达99.5%，是天然的空调和氧吧，其PUE值（评价数据中心能源效率的指标）低于1.2，处于国内绿色数据中心领先水平，是全国数据中心综合能耗最低、设备使用寿命最长的地区之一。
“数据中心是算力的载体，通过配备不同的服务器、显卡等硬件设备形成强大的计算能力和大规模数据处理能力，满足高性能计算的应用场景。”贵安新区科创产业发展有限公司技术研发部部长、贵安超算中心负责人彭本黔介绍。
过去，贵州的大多数数据中心是“以存为主”，在全球人工智能快速发展的背景下，贵州不再满足于做一个大型“U盘”。“智算”是人工智能发展的基础底座，贵州抢抓“风口”机遇，推动数据中心由单纯“存储中心”向“存算一体”转变。
2020年底，贵州首个超级计算中心贵安超级计算中心建成投用，由贵安科创公司负责运营。“目前我们共有600余台服务器，计算峰值已达到每秒1.3亿亿次。”彭本黔介绍，“如果用一台普通电脑制作一部3D动画电影的特效渲染，需要近600年的时间才能完成。而在贵安超级计算中心，只需要3个月。”
除了本地自建的算力中心，华为、腾讯、网易等互联网头部企业也纷纷在贵州部署落地超大规模的算力中心和智算中心，多家银行的金融数据中心也在贵州聚集。截至7月底，全省算力规模累计达到40.55Eflops（Eflops指每秒百亿亿次浮点运算次数），其中智算37.578Eflops，占比超90%，贵州成为全中国智算能力最强的地区之一。
就如其他商品一样，算力也不可能实现完全的供需平衡。对于闲置的算力资源，则会进入公共算力资源池，由全国一体化算力网络国家（贵州）枢纽节点平台进行调度，让资源侧和需求侧高效对接。
算力的输送、交易也离不开网络基础设施。“目前贵州已与北京、上海、深圳、广州等全国38座城市实现网络直联，能够满足目前绝大部分‘东数西算’业务需求。”贵安新区数据服务科技有限公司事业部总监张洁介绍。
与此同时，贵州以算力撬动产业发展，带动上中下游产业的发展，不断延长产业链。在算力的支持下，不少贵州本土企业也开始布局新的赛道。
作为一家专业从事地理信息大数据应用与开发的科技公司，贵州图智信息技术有限公司致力于提供空天地一体化的时空信息实时服务。成立8年多，图智信息也亲历了贵州大数据产业的发展变化。“生态链越来越好。”公司董事长黄勇说，“算力支撑、行业应用、数据交易，各方面都趋于完善，我们的生产效率越来越高，业务也越来越广。”
