Extreme Technology: “According to reports from various industry sources, the Chinese government has begun the process of picking a national computer chip instruction set architecture ISA.
This ISA would have to be used for any projects backed with government money — which, in a communist country such as China, is a fairly long list of public and private enterprises and institutions, including China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world. The primary reason for this move is to lessen China’s reliance on western intellectual property.
There are at least five existing ISAs on the table for consideration — MIPS, Alpha, ARM, Power, and the homegrown UPU — but the Chinese leadership has also mooted the idea of defining an entirely new architecture. The first meeting to decide on a nationwide ISA, attended by government officials and representatives from academic groups and companies such as Huawei and ZTE, was held in March. According to MIPS vice president Robert Bismuth, a final decision will be made in “a matter of months.””
via China plans national, unified CPU architecture | ExtremeTech.
Firstly, I’m not really surprised. As you may know China is developing its own GPS to remove its reliance on US technology – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203479104577123600791556284.html . If (God forbid) it comes to ‘real’ war, the US can apparently switch off GPS for civilian and unfriendly consumption! It has its own social media technology – http://www.mckinseychina.com/2012/04/25/chinas-social-media-boom/ . And it has even developed an iPad – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/19/redpad-number-one-china_n_1215393.html .
And despite some views in the West, China is gaining in innovation, almost at level of US and Japan in terms of patents lodged (see – https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/innovation/ )
My own view is that the Chinese will select the architecture that suits its long term purposes best. That would be a combination of rational, systems-oriented reasons and emotive, political reasons. If the current top leadership is consulted, the former will have some leverage as 7 out out the top 9 leaders are all engineers by training and early experience (see – https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/18/chinese-leadership-are-mostly-engineers/ ).
Related articles
- China said to consider national CPU standard (electronista.com)
- China’s Unified CPU Architecture, Why and When (ubergizmo.com)
- https://chindia-alert.org/prognosis/innovation/
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 