China's 'Dragon Chip' Waddles Forward Among Argument

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 16, 2002

China's 'Dragon Chip' Waddles Forward Among Argument

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The CPU "Dragon Chip" developed by the Computer Institution of the Chinese Academy of Science with its own intellectual property rights has been heaped under questions and doubts even before its emergence into the world.

Oppositions spread out from the Internet to traditional media, which were seemingly reasonable. They argue that the design of CPU was a project piled up with money. The Intel Co., a worldly chip elder put in billions of the US dollars a year for the design and development while the expense of the "Dragon Chip" for that was a mere 30 million in the people's currency as announced the Computer Institution. People all say, the higher the price the better the quality of the goods. What could be done with such a meager amount of money?

The Intel Co. with thousands of senior and richly experienced IC designers used some 15 years to develop from 486 to Pentium II. But the lots in the Computer Institution said, they reached the level of 486 in 2001 while this year we learned that they'd already arrived at the equal level of Pentium II. Could it be so quick as that? Isn't it a boast to step over 15 years in just one year? To draw back, even if you've reached the level of Pentium II how could you compete others when they are already over the threshold of Pentium IV?

To develop the CPU of its own is not just a tapping for IC it has to be followed and supported with the development of prevailing operational system, said Sun Wei, a technological director of the VIA Tech, the 3rd in the CPU world. Every step forward the Intel made is interactively supported and followed up by the Microsoft. However, there doesn't exist such a developer in the field in China and, of course, you couldn't expect the Microsoft to follow and support the development.

The blockage of the intellectual property rights is another barrier. According to Sun Wei, there often occur "complicated cases in the reasonable protection of intellectual property rights and unfair market competition" as such in this field. The property rights and extensive patent rights that the VIA Tech owns were mostly purchased from the manufacturers CYRIX prevailed in 1999 in the US and they won the two verdicts and reached compromises in four as ruled by the US court located in where the Intel Headquarters is based. Though the VIA Tech didn't fail in any of the rulings they suffered a hell's lot in financial, market and other sectors.

CAS "opinionated"

All opinions from outside were almost inclined to one side but the Computer Institution followed its own way. On Sept. 28, 2002 the Chinese Academy of Science, calling a grand press conference in the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing, proclaimed to the world that the first commercialized CPU chip of universality and of high performance of China's own intellectual property rights was brought to light in China, i.e. the "Dragon Chip I" and is able to be put into mass production. However, what surprised the outside world is that the announcement of the "Dragon Chip" successfully developed by the Computer Institution is mainly dedicated to the insert-in chip market instead of the PC market.

In 2001, in the global CPU chip output used in the servers came to around one million, that in the PC a number of 150 millions while the insert-in chips amounted to some 10 billions in all. As learned chips are actually used in many products as mobile phone-sets, its cover-ups and hand computers. And there are about 30 or 40 chips used on an automobile and an airplane requires more than thousand of such insert-in chips.

Government orders

One of the great superiority in the design of the "Dragon Chip" is that it has a buffer-zone hardware for parrying off attack, which can help set back the viruses or hackers' attacks to a great extent. It is suitable for the safety in the making of a network server, the superiority being closely tied up with the nation's information security.

Sept.26, 2002 saw the Shuguang Tianyan Information Technology Ltd. of the CAS bring out to the world the "Soaring Dragon" server. In it, not only the "Dragon Chip 1" but also the mainboard and Linux operational system of China's own special development for the use of "Dragon Chip1" were introduced. Therefore, in several key technologies China began to possess the first server of its own intellectual property rights.

Up to now, a number of software programs for the actual application has been successfully transplanted into the sample computer of the "Dragon Chip 1". The applied software programs include network terminals, mobile media servers, office environment, video-meeting and IPv6 firewall and safety switch as well. The deft gateway system based on the "Dragon Chip 1" sample computer has also been in stable running for almost a month in the network center of the University of Science and Technology of China. The "Dragon Chip 1" sample computer has withstood the severe test too and can work quite well under the low temperature of minus 35�� and 70��,up to the standard of an industrial product.

As learned the researchers have also planted the "China Chip" into the network computer (NC), an information terminal and a replacement for PC, and turned out the protomodel Shenzhou Dragon Chip network computer. It is expected that the "Dragon Chip" will win over a great number of government orders.

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