Chinese
researchers unveiled details of a microprocessor that they hope will
bring personal computing to most ordinary people in China by 2010. The
chip, code-named Godson-3, was developed with government funding by more
than 200 researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of
Computing Technology (ICT).
Godson chips are manufactured in China by a Swiss company called ST
Microelectronics and are available commercially under the brand name
Loongson, meaning "dragon chip." Loongson chips already power some
personal computers and servers on the Chinese market, which come with
the Linux operating system and other open-source software. "They use a
lot of open-source software because it's free," says Halfhill. "The
Chinese government wants to get as many PCs into schools and as many
workplaces as they can."