In 1990, the National Research Center for Intelligent Computing Systems was established in the Institute of Computing Technology. The Center then carry out researches on National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program), and started to research and develop China’s independent high-performance computer systems.

Researchers at the Center developed China’s first parallel UNIX operating system, called SNIX, in 1992.

“Dawning 1”, the first fully symmetric shared memory multiprocessor system in China, was developed one year later and passed technical appraisal organized by the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology the same year.

The high-performance computing capability cultivated by the Center has laid a solid foundation for China to enter the world's forefront in the field of HPC and artificial intelligence.

After more than 20 years of development, the “Dawning” family has evolved into a series of productized high-performance computer systems, beginning with Dawning 1 and continuing past Dawning 6000. Dawning Computer (the commercial brand is called “Sugon”) has become the mainstream product of high-performance computers in China.