China on Monday launched a homegrown software platform designed to make it easier for scientific research programs to run on domestic computing systems, addressing a key bottleneck as the country seeks to develop an independent and efficient scientific computing software ecosystem.
The platform, known in Chinese as "Yisuan Fangzhou", or "Heterogeneous Computing Ark", was jointly developed by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions.
It targets problems including software adaptation, code migration and complicated research workflows.
China has made rapid progress in developing domestic computing hardware, but researchers say the software needed to support the hardware still lags behind. In some cases, research code written for other computing environments is difficult to move to domestic systems, as engineering simulations may still require some complex manual work.
The new platform is designed to connect the full process from algorithms and code conversion to research applications. Its base layer integrates 16 high-performance computing tools adapted to domestic computing architectures, with core computing performance improved by more than 10 times in some cases, according to the developers.
The platform also includes BoundX, a code-conversion model that can help adapt existing research code to different domestic computing environments, reducing the need for time-consuming manual rewriting.
"For example, research teams in China working on new materials can use our platform to independently and quickly build application software suited to domestic computing systems. This can enable faster iteration in materials research and support structural screening," said Wang Yangang, a researcher at the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Developers said the platform is expected to lower the technical threshold for moving mature software and existing research codes onto domestic computing systems by achieving seamless integration of the entire chain of algorithms, codes, and applications.
China launches platform to help research software run on domestic computing systems
