China has been investing in science and technology projects as the country plans to become a high-tech leader. Chinese state media reported on Tuesday that China is planning to build a prototype exascale computer this year.

China is in a global competition to be the first nation to build a machine that can do a quintillion calculations per second, which is thousand times the power of the first petascale computer launched in 2008.

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If China is successful in this attempt, it would make the country a superpower in the world of supercomputing, CTV News reported. Last year, China built the Sunway TaihuLight machine, which is the fastest supercomputer in the world.

This supercomputer is twice as fast compared to the previous fastest supercomputer. This supercomputer only made use of locally manufactured microchips.

Xinhua reported that a prototype of the exascale computer has been in the pipeline for a long time and a complete version of such a device could take a few years to complete. According to Enca, the exascale computer could set new heights in cloud computing and big data. The prototype could also lead the world in data transmission as well as in faster calculations.

According to a recent statistics published by the supercomputer tracking website Top500, China has more top-ranked supercomputers than the US. China is leading the US with more than two top-ranked supercomputers. Currently, of the world's top 10 fastest computers, two are located in China. While five are located in the US and the rest are located in Switzerland and Japan.