With the joint support from the national High-technology Development Program (or the 863 Program) and CAS Knowledge Innovation Program, scientists from the CAS Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) have developed China's first home-made 64-bit high-performance general-purpose CPU chips, marking a breakthrough in microprocessor development. The announcement was made at a press conference held on April 18 in Beijing under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology, CAS and Ministry of Information Industry.
Dubbed Godson-2, the overall performance of the new 500MHz chip could be comparable to an Intel Pentium III, or 10 times than that of the Godson-1, which was released by ICT less than two year ago, according to the news release. The new chips support Linux and X-window systems and have a wide application perspective. They could be used for such networking devices as desktop network terminals, low-end servers, firewalls, routers, switches and multimedia networking terminals.
In order to promote the domestic chip industry, China has set up a manufacturing chain for Godson chip series, in which ICT focuses on core technology development, BLX IC Design Co. Ltd plays a role as an intermediate link between research bodies and manufacturing sector, and Godson Labs and business firms act as down-stream partners. A CAS-Menglan Industrialization Base for the mass production of Godson chips have been set up in east China's Jiangsu Province.
