As an important support for the development of the digital economy, computing power provides strong support for the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. In February 2022, the "Eastern Numbers and Western Numbers" project was officially launched. Over the past two years, with the introduction and implementation of a series of policies, the construction of national hub nodes has achieved phased results, and the unbalanced spatial distribution of computing power resources in the east and west has been greatly improved.

Accelerate the construction of integrated computing network Building a national integrated computing power network is a strategic measure to deal with a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is a key step in promoting coordinated regional development and promoting the circulation of data elements.

In order to integrate and optimize computing power resources across the country, better meet the computing needs of various fields, and reduce computing power usage costs and usage thresholds, in December 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Bureau and other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on In-depth Implementation of the" Eastern Digital and Western Computing "Project to Accelerate the Construction of a National Integrated Computing Power Network", proposing that by the end of 2025, a comprehensive computing power infrastructure system that is universal, easy-to-use, green and safe will be initially formed. The collaborative scheduling mechanism of computing power in the east and west has been gradually improved, and multiple computing powers such as general computing power, intelligent computing power, and super computing power have been accelerated.

Staff inspected the operating status of the micro-module computer room at China Unicom Gui 'an Data Center. Photo by Tao Liang (Xinhua Agency)

Shan Zhiguang, director of the Information Technology and Industrial Development Department of the National Information Center, said that to achieve scientific and reasonable layout of various computing power resources, we must coordinate and connect the national computing power hub nodes, national data center clusters and existing various types of computing power facilities across the country. and cooperate to form a reasonable division of labor, scientific linkage, and efficient collaboration mechanism, effectively give full play to the leading and demonstration role of the national layout, and achieve "one account" for data resources and "one game of chess" for computing power resources.

"The four nodes of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing are based on the needs of serving the implementation of major regional development strategies, and further coordinate the layout of data centers within and around the city. The four nodes of Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Ningxia have natural advantages in clean energy supply and are suitable for building green computing power bases. By actively undertaking medium and high latency services in the eastern region, they promote artificial intelligence model training reasoning, machine learning, and video in the eastern region. Services such as rendering, offline analysis, and storage and backup are transferred in an orderly manner, and local real-time data processing are undertaken." Liu Liehong, director of the National Data Bureau, said.

Data shows that as of the end of 2023, the number of racks in use providing computing power services in China has reached 8.1 million standard racks, ranking second in the world in terms of total computing power.

Accelerate penetration into multiple fields 当前，算力正加速向交通、金融、教育、医疗、科技、能源等领域渗透，构建全国一体化算力网将赋能各行各业数字化转型升级，推进新型工业化和数字经济向纵深发展。

随着大模型等人工智能产业和应用的迅速发展，中国对智能算力资源的需求愈发旺盛。去年底，燧原科技发布“燎原”生态合作计划，携手产业上下游合作伙伴共建通用人工智能产业化联盟。“在通用人工智能生态体系中， Innovation of algorithms and models is the key, data is the cornerstone, computing power is the core support, and application scenarios are the driving force, requiring the concerted efforts and close cooperation of all upstream and downstream parties in the industry.”燧原创始人兼COO张亚林表示。

Computing Power Center of the State Key Laboratory of Public Big Data. Photo by Liu Xu (Xinhua Agency)

单志广认为，没有业务应用保障，算力设施就无法发挥应有作用，还可能会造成设施空置和能源空耗。 All parties need to jointly carry out evaluations and calculations for performance, price, efficiency, safety and other aspects to form a real application demand supply and a long-term driving mechanism for safe, credible and sustainable operations.

“中国算力基础设施建设已达到世界领先水平，然而标准化普惠化算力服务统一大市场尚未形成，存在算力供给紧张与部分算力未能有效利用的矛盾。”中国信息通信研究院院长余晓晖表示。例如，中国东部经济发达地区算力供不应求，但区域内算力资源供给能力和增长潜力有限。西部地区具有大规模算力设施发展的资源禀赋优势，但本地需求不足，资源利用率不高。 It is necessary to solve the problems of building a unified market for computing power services and effectively utilizing resources across the entire region on the basis of coordinating the optimal layout of computing power facilities across the country.

Collaborate to promote the construction of smart computing centers 《算力基础设施高质量发展行动计划》提出，到2025年，算力规模超过300EFlops，智能算力占比达到35％。 Intelligent computing centers are becoming a new driving force to support the rapid development of the artificial intelligence industry and economic growth.

"Currently, the demand for intelligent computing power in various industries and fields is becoming increasingly strong. In the process of moderately advanced construction of digital infrastructure, the top priority in computing power construction is the intelligent computing center." Shan Zhiguang believes.

Future artificial intelligence computing center in Future Industrial City in Yanta District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. Photo by Zhang Manyi (Xinhua Agency)

The Intelligent Computing Center is a new public computing infrastructure based on the latest artificial intelligence theory and adopting leading artificial intelligence computing architecture to provide computing power services, data services and algorithm services required by artificial intelligence applications. Through the production, aggregation, and scheduling of computing power, it efficiently supports data open sharing, intelligent ecological construction, and industrial innovation aggregation. The intelligent computing center uses the AI server computing power unit as the computing power base to continuously improve intelligent computing capabilities and speed to meet the large-scale, multi-line parallel computing needs in artificial intelligence application scenarios.

单志广表示， The construction of a smart computing center must adopt leading architecture design, with computing power infrastructure as the main body, algorithm infrastructure as the guide, service smart components as the support, and facility green as the support. Implement and apply key technologies in all aspects such as infrastructure, hardware, software, algorithms, services, etc.

"In the context of building a national integrated computing power system, we will coordinate the construction of smart computing centers, accelerate the coordination and cooperation of eastern and western computing power resources, and provide inclusive computing power through smart computing centers, which will help aggregate factor resources and innovative talents in the artificial intelligence industry chain." Shan Zhiguang said that through the system optimization layout of the intelligent computing center, the coordinated linkage of computing power, network, data, energy, etc. across the country will be realized, industrial AI will be promoted, information, equipment, energy and other industries will be promoted to break through key core technology bottlenecks, and seize the commanding heights of technological innovation, achieve rapid iteration and large-scale application of products, and enhance the influence and competitiveness of the field of scientific and technological innovation.