Gov't support needed for nation's industry to match U.S.
China's leading microchip maker on Tuesday released its latest generation of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), giving a boost to the country's semiconductor industry, even as experts called on solving bottlenecks before similar domestic products reach international markets.
Loongson Technology, a public-private joint venture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) and Jiangsu Lemote Tech Co Ltd, released its latest quad-core processors, 3A2000 and 3B2000.
Dong Jielin, a science and innovation expert at Soochow University, said that despite technological advancements made in recent years, China's semiconductor industry still lags behind US companies like Intel because the domestic market lacks maturity.
"A considerable gap exists between chipmakers in China and those in the US. The industry in China has been plagued by dishonest practices," Dong told the Global Times.
Loongson's chief architect, Hu Weiwu, said in an earlier interview with China Central Television that some consumers do not choose their products because their chip architecture does not support software such as Adobe.
For the past three years, China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer has been listed as the world's fastest supercomputer on the TOP 500 list, a project that ranks the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world.
Its front-end system consists of 4,096 China-produced Galaxy FT-1500 processors, which Dong says proves China's advances in chip making.
Due to high investment risks, long payback periods and high technological barriers, the private sector has been slow to invest, according to Dong, who said it would be very difficult for the industry to develop without government support.
"The government has invested huge amounts of money into the industry. But some companies would misuse the research funds by stealing or buying original designs from other companies," Dong said.
Since developing its first processor in 2001, China has been making strides with government support and incentives to the industry.
With the development of the semiconductor industry, Dong said China's tech industry will shift from low-end products like computer shells to more cutting-edge technology like CPUs. "But an independent and mature market system is required to develop high-end technology, which has long been dominated by Western companies."
In April, the U.S. government blocked Intel from selling its products to Chinese supercomputer firms such as Inspur, responsible for building the Tianhe-2 supercomputer. "This could provide more space for local manufacturers to develop their products," Dong said.
