China Still Developing Processor – Godson-3
In California a couple weeks ago, 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). The Godson-3 chip is able to run more software by simulating an x86 chip, which allows it to run the Windows operating system. Because the x86 chip architecture is only simulated, there is no need to obtain a license from Intel. Those sneaky Chinese are at it again!
Despite its late start, China is making rapid progress. The ICT group began designing a single-core CPU in 2001, and by the following year had developed Godson-1, China’s first general-purpose CPU. In 2003, 2004, and 2006, the team introduced ever faster versions of a second chip–Godson-2–based on the original design. According to Xu, each new chip tripled the performance of the previous one.
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