Kylin Ubuntu in Tianhe 2

Question

I have heard that the world's fastest supercomputer, Tianhe 2 , runs Ubuntu Kylin. Is it true ? What type of Operating System is Ubuntu Kylin?

Answer 1

Tianhe - 2 and Its Operating System

Tianhe - 2 (天河二号) uses Kylin OS as operating system, according to Wikipedia article, which cites Jack Dongarra's report for University of Tennessee

Quote from the original article by Dongarra:

The Software Stack The Tianhe-2 is using Kylin Linux as the operating system. Kylin is an operating system developed by the National University for Defense Technology, and successfully approved by China’s 863 Hi-tech Research and Development Program office in 2006. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylin_(operating_system) for addition details . . .This is the same OS used in the Tianhe-1A.

Since I can speak Chinese, I have also consulted one of the articles on the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou website:

Translation of the passage:

Cloud services contain two levels: first, Kylin OS ; second Kylin cloud platform. The Kylin OS is a 64-bit OS that provides low level KVM virtualization support . . . (Translation is mine)

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Kylin OS (麒麟) 　vs Ubuntu Kylin　（优麒麟）

Kylin Linux is a separate project, which originally was based on FreeBSD, so it is different from Ubuntu Kylin. It should be noted that Ubuntu Kylin in and of itself has Ubuntu as base and Unity desktop , but distinguishes itself in providing apps that are specifically tailored for mainland Chinese users. Just as any other Ubuntu flavor, it can serve as server for computational or other purposes.

Side notes

• Softpedia incorrectly attributes Ubuntu Kylin to be running on Tianhe.