The Tianhe-1A supercomputer, considered to be the fastest of its kind in the world, in Tianjin municipality. [Photo/ Xinhua]

The world's fastest supercomputer Tianhe-1A, based in North China's Tianjin municipality, could soon be available to international clients but as of now is solely for domestic purposes.

Tianhe-1A, which can perform a shade under 2.6 quadrillion operations per second, topped the world's top 500 supercomputers list, a first for a Chinese supercomputer.

Its services have been offered to more than 20 clients in a variety of application areas, such as oil exploration, weather forecasting and bio-medical research.

Tianhe-1A is estimated to have cost 600 million yuan (66.7 million euros) and was developed by the Changsha-based National University of Defense Technology.