Computers with home-grown Chinese CPU debut
The first batch of 80 computers powered by home-grown Chinese CPUs are undergoing user tests. This means the home-made chip Godson II E has finished lab tests and moved into pilot commercial operation.
Lemote, based in Changshu, in east China's Jiangsu Province, will put a total of 1,000 computers on the market before the Chinese Lunar New Year.
The computer, which uses a Linux operating system, comes with a 40-gigabyte hard drive and 256 megabytes of memory. It costs 1,599 yuan (about 200 U.S. dollars), and users have to buy the monitor, keyboard and mouse separately, the company said on its website.
Godson II E was developed by the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China started CPU research and development in 2001, and the first chip, Godson I, came out in September 2002, bringing the country's microprocessor industry a step closer to the world leading manufacturers in the United States and Japan.
The ICT has since developed three more generations of the Godson -- Godson II B, Godson II C and Godson II E. The latter models triple the computing speed of the previous ones, said Li Guojie, director of the ICT.
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