TIANJIN -- A sample machine for China's new-generation exascale supercomputer is set for launch this year, a researcher said.

"The launch of the sample machine will pave the way for the development of a supercomputer capable of a billion billion calculations per second," said Zhang Ting, a researcher with the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin.

The new supercomputer will be 200 times faster and have 100 times more storage capacity than the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, China's first petaflop supercomputer launched in 2010, Zhang said.

The supercomputer center in Tianjin began developing the exascale supercomputer with the National University of Defense Technology in 2016.

According to the national plan for the next generation of high performance computers, China will develop an exascale computer during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period (2016-2020).

At present, the Tianhe-1 supports various tasks including oil exploration, high-end equipment manufacturing, biological medicine and animation design.

"The Tianhe-1, which performs more than 1,400 tasks each day, is running at full capacity. We need a new-generation supercomputer to replace it," Zhang said.