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Situated along the Yangtze River, Wuhan has been a major transportation hub since ancient times.
Today, this historic city is stepping into a new technological era. With the accelerated rollout of China's "East Data, West Computing" strategy and the deepening integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), Wuhan has rapidly established a powerful "intelligent computing + supercomputing" dual-engine model. Built in just six months, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center—China's largest prefabricated modular data center—has become a landmark presence on China's computing power map.
However, the flip side of computing power is energy consumption. The power, cooling, and management requirements of ultra-large computing clusters often pose a major barrier to further growth. The Wuhan Supercomputing Center delivers powerful computing capabilities for scientific research, industries, and society, while overcoming the challenge of high energy consumption through Huawei Digital Power's innovative solutions. It sets a new benchmark for green, reliable, and low-carbon data centers.
On November 23, 2022, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center officially commenced operations. Housed in a building shaped like a giant CPU, with a total floor area of approximately 4,400 square meters, the center has a total planned computing capacity of 200 PFLOPS, with an initial deployment of 54 PFLOPS. Its technological foundation is built upon tens of thousands of Kunpeng processor cores and thousands of accelerator cards, integrating both AI and HPC resources to establish itself as China's first "multi-purpose, cloud-based computing cluster."
Together with the adjacent Wuhan AI Computing Center, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center forms a "dual-engine" computing power configuration in Wuhan. The two centers jointly support cutting-edge scientific research in areas such as climate modeling, life sciences, and industrial simulation, and have incubated a series of world-leading technological achievements in heavy rain prediction, whole-cell genome sequencing, numerical wind-tunnel testing, and other fields. To date, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center has served over 100 enterprises, becoming a core engine for innovation and development in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
Building a supercomputing center typically involves long construction timelines, significant investment, and complex coordination. Yet, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center was completed in just 172 days, setting a new standard known as the "Wuhan speed."
The key lies in Huawei's FusionDC1000C prefabricated modular data center solution. Unlike the conventional "onsite construction and sequential setup" approach, FusionDC1000C adopts a parallel approach of "factory prefabrication + onsite installation." Core modules are standardized in the factory, then transported to the site for rapid assembly and installation. This approach not only enhances construction efficiency but also guarantees engineering quality and project delivery consistency.
On June 20, 2022, the first prefabricated container was hoisted into place. On July 19, the main structure was completed. On November 23, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center officially began operation. In just half a year, the center went from blueprint to reality. This speed accelerates AI big data services and sets a new benchmark for the construction of supercomputing centers in China and globally.
Behind the surge in computing power lies a challenge: soaring energy consumption. The power density of a single rack here reaches 66 kW, which is eight times that of a conventional IT rack. This places multiple demands on both power delivery and cooling systems. Achieving a high-efficiency power supply and low-carbon operation within a limited space became a central challenge in its construction and operation.
The Wuhan Supercomputing Center adopted the Huawei FusionPower6000 solution. Guided by the principles of "reliability, agility, and sustainability," this solution redefines the power supply and distribution link, providing one power supply per row. It uses AI to enable full-link visual management, predict hightemperature behavior of key nodes under low load, and forecast the lifespans of vulnerable components. This shifts maintenance from a passive to a predictive model, significantly improving system reliability. By replacing cables with prefabricated busbars and using prefabricated modules, this solution reduces the delivery period from 2 months to 2 weeks, accelerating the rollout of supercomputing services. The use of highdensity UPS and flapwing switches saves cabinets and reduces the footprint by 40%, thereby improving space utilization. Operating efficiently in double-conversion mode, the system saves approximately 1 million kWh of electricity annually compared to conventional solutions, equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by 600,000 kg. While ensuring a highly reliable power supply, it achieves significant reductions in both energy consumption and O&M pressure.
Cooling, along with power, is another major energy consumer. The Wuhan Supercomputing Center incorporates Huawei's iCooling@AI energy efficiency optimization solution. By collecting and analyzing large-scale operational data and applying AI algorithms for dynamic control, the solution reduces power usage effectiveness (PUE) by more than 8%. In effect, AI takes over the "cockpit" of the cooling system, enabling more precise and efficient temperature control and eliminating energy waste from overcooling.
Collectively, these measures have enabled the Wuhan Supercomputing Center to maintain exceptional computational power while balancing high performance and low energy consumption.
The Wuhan Supercomputing Center is a landmark project for regional development and also a key node in the national strategy. In August 2022, it was officially connected to the China Computing NET, becoming an important hub in the "East Data, West Computing" project.
This achievement stems from collaborative innovation among the Wuhan Municipal Government, industrial partners, and Huawei Digital Power. From toplevel design to implementation, and from hardware architecture to energy efficiency optimization, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center has integrated expertise from multiple stakeholders to build a reliable, agile, and sustainable computing foundation.
The completion of the Wuhan Supercomputing Center represents far more than the addition of a supercomputing facility. It signals that computing power has become a key factor for production, as essential as water, electricity, and coal. In the race for AI and the digital economy, control of high-performance, cost-effective computing resources is the key to prevailing in the competition.
Today, Wuhan, powered by its "intelligent computing + supercomputing" dual-engine model, is attracting a growing number of research institutions and enterprises, including the BGI Research Institute, PIESAT, Institute of Automation (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Shuimu BioSciences, Shenzhen Bosheng, and the Wuhan AI Research of Peking University. In the future, Wuhan will drive leapfrog development in fields such as biomedicine, smart manufacturing, smart cities, and climate prediction. The Wuhan Supercomputing Center not only illuminates the city's night sky but also lights the path for China's computing power economy.
For centuries, Wuhan has built its history on openness and resilience. In the face of the AI revolution, the city is acting with speed and foresight.
The Wuhan Supercomputing Center, a "steel brain" shaped like a CPU, not only delivers massive computing power to scientific research and industry, but also addresses the dilemma of high computing power and high energy consumption through its green, lowcarbon design. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Wuhan AI Computing Center, it forms a "dual-engine" configuration on the national computing map and embodies China's commitment to a sustainable computing future.
In the era when AI and HPC converge, the Wuhan Supercomputing Center represents the ambitious rise of a city and China's readiness to embrace the future.
