Computing industry drives Hunan's high-quality development

Computing industry, establishing sound industrial ecology, has become a new engine driving the high-quality economic development of central China's Hunan province.

The province's electronic information industry achieved revenue of over 182.25 billion yuan ($27.89 billion) in the first 8 months of this year, up 12.7 percent year on year. The investment growth of the province's computers, communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing sectors stood at over 82 percent in the same period, the highest among all major industries of the province.

The 2020 World Computer Congress was recently held in Changsha, capital of Hunan province. Li Xiao, marketing manager of Hunan Greatwall Technology Information Co., Ltd., introduced a domestically-made computer at an exhibition area of the event. "The computer is made in Zhuzhou, Hunan province. Its CPU is from Chinese chip maker Phytium, and the graphics processing unit offered by Hunan-based firm Jingjia Micro. Its solid-state memory device is developed by Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co., Ltd. Its operation system is China's Kylin," he said.

"After 10 years of development, the computers independently developed by China have transformed from 'out-of-service' to "basically functional," and they are getting 'handy' nowadays," Li told the People's Daily.

Behind the progress were constant breakthroughs in key technologies.

Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co., Ltd., started in 2008, is a company that is shifting its focus on the main control chips of solid-state disks (SSD), an area that no Chinese firm had ever stepped in.

Photo shows a 4K decoding chip independently developed by Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (Photo from the official website of Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co., Ltd.)

"Our teams have written over a million lines of code and developed three generations of main control chips," said Liu Jing, branding director of the company. Besides, the company has also developed positioning chips based on China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, smart monitoring chips and HD decoding chips, and more and more products of it are entering people's daily life and production.

In Xiangjiang New Area of Hunan, unmanned taxis are now a must-do item on tourists' checklist.

Photo shows unmanned taxis in Changsha, Hunan province. (Photo from FM90.5)

"We started trial operation for selected customers since January this year, and kicked off test runs in Meixihu district for all Changsha citizens three months later. The taxis have also become available in Yanghu district since August," said Jin Zhen, marketing manager of Hunan Apollo Intelligent Transportation, an autopilot taxi service provider.

Changsha is home to one of the largest and most complete test areas for smart driving in China. It is in a leading position in the smart driving industry that might embrace a trillion-yuan market, he added.

The National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Changsha) Testing Zone in Hunan province is home to over 300 major enterprises in the industry, and the test field is expected to turn into a real industry cluster.

At the 2020 World Computer Congress, a sign language interpreter attracted crowds of people. As a guide spoke, corresponding sign language was presented on a screen. The seemingly simple presentation was supported by state-of-the-art computing animation and big data.

Photo shows a smart sign language interpreting system. (Photo from Chinanews.com)

"We are a cooperation partner of Changsha's news channel. Sign language is shown on screens simultaneously as the anchors report the news," said Yan Xiangling, head of the special education department of Changsha Keenbow Information Technology, the developer of the sign language interpreting system.

In recent years, Hunan province has laid high importance on the development of digital economy, a sector based on the computing industry, and improved its smart manufacturing, industrial internet, 5G application and mobile internet sectors to accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading.

Photo shows a 5G-powered smart agricultural management system developed by Hunan branch of China Unicom. (Photo from Chinanews.com)

Information technology is also driving the upgrading of the province's traditional industries. In Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone, a series of leading enterprises of China have established their digital platforms, including SANY, an industry-leading global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., and Sunward, an advanced machinery manufacturer.

Hunan is now home to nearly 100 industrial internet platforms that connect over 2.15 million industrial devices and benefit over 100 subdivisions. These platforms have more than 70,000 active users.

"An industrial internet development mode that features Hunan's characteristics has been preliminarily formed," said Xiong Chen, chief economist of the Industry and Information Technology Department of Hunan Province.