China developing x86-compatible processor to rival Intel
By Nilay Patel 
posted September 4th 2008 2:24PM
posted September 4th 2008 2:24PM
While most of the products coming out of China are powered by Intel, AMD, and VIA chips, the Chinese government is investing heavily in a new chip called the Godson-3 in an effort to be "technologically independent." The Godson-3 is a third generation, quad-core design -- the project was started in 2001 -- and the goal is to use it to bring PCs to most Chinese citizens by 2010. Importantly, the 65nm Godson-3 will be x86 compatible through simulation, which means it'll be able to run Windows about 80 percent as fast as a comparable Intel chip -- although other Godson chips are already on the Chinese market in Linux-powered desktops and laptops under the name Loongson, or "dragon chip," they've been hampered by incompatibility with x86 software, so this should open things up significantly. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one -- hopefully it'll bring about more than just another flood of cheap netbooks.[Via Slashdot]
Doesn't anyone proof-read this stuff?
They released their first one two years ago and it was a REMARKED AMD Chip.
Compatible via simulation? Seriously? What do they mean by that?
Isn't every computer/cpu almost by definition (universal turing machine)?
Developing?!?!
How about reverse engineering and mass producing...
Only 80% compatible
Reverse engineering ? I don't think so.
That's what I forsee. That's another step toward China's supremacy. I predict a 3rd world war and the USA and China will be in the center of it.
I wonder how many patents they'll violate.
I'm just say'n
Funny how people on the Left, who wet their diapers over supposed American freedom infractions, are all ready to brown-nose China.
If you think China's so great, go live there.
The China Supremacy -- starring Maaatt Daaaamon
The "x86 incompatibility"?
Pretty much only two things which are x86 dependent in Linux are Adobe Flash (it has only x86 and x64 Linux builds) and Sun's Java (Sun allowed to port Java to x86 Linux only).
Pretty much nothing else comes to mind.
P.S. Drivers - China, as a major producer of electronics, can pick hardware which is Linux compatible. Shouldn't be a problem at all.
development their own? hahaha. It's not like they respect the intellectual property of anyone! They should just comandeer an intel facility and steal all of the work.
If steal, it won't take 7years for China to make something.
So will the chip have a sticker saying "made in China"?
Does your AMD/Intel has a sticker says Not Made in USA?
Hmm..
Would be interesting to open that bad boy and look for signs of INTEL or AMD.....
I seriously doubt this will get out of the country any time soon - China has been developing their own supercomputers for their own banks and government departments, so this CPU will simply replace whatever is already in their supercomputers.
I suggest you read and stop making slanderous accusation.
"In March 2007 STMicroelectronics bought a licence from MIPS Technologies Inc. and announced a partnership wherein STMicro will manufacture and distribute Godson-family processors."
"Unlike processors from Intel, Advanced Micro Devices or Via Technologies, the Godson-2E is not based on the x86 instruction set. Instead, the chip uses a modified version of the MIPS instruction set that replaces proprietary instructions with ones developed by ICT. This means the Godson 2E cannot be used in PCs running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, and thus the computing devices based on the Godson 2E would be most likely running the Linux operating system."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godson
I am fed up seeing people accusing China all sort of things.
I just want to correct 2 tiny tiny mistakes:
First, that CPU series is called Loongson, not Godson, as you can see from the picture. It means dragon's son,which's the same as all Chinese claim to be.
Second, we Chinese call our social system Socialism. Communism was the ultimate goal of China in Chairman Mao's era, yea, that's correct. However, in 1982, Chinese government introduced "building socialism with Chinese characteristics" as its governing orientation. That's the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's era.
You guys like wiki huh? Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
I personally hate Loongson, because it grows so sO SO slow. But I don't want to see our Chinese forces using other states' CPU or OS. No, thank you.
"x86-compatible processor"
Can you say trace by trace copy?
To those who keep making ridiculous slanderous accusation.
If the Godson tech was stolen from Intel then why the Hell does it have to take so many years to bring it out ? Can't it just take a year or even months ?
Please people , before making silly accusation, at least make some judgement and reasoning.
please stop talking about judgement and reasoning with us americans, we dont give a shit about things we dont know shit about, like china and russia, we hate them because they are commies; and i'm gonna boycott chinese stuff like this chip because we want a free ta...tibat (is that what that darn place is called?)...or something like that ok, dont even ask me where that tibat thing is, i only know where mexico is, so take that china!
Oh, i heard that russia just invaded georgia, hell i living in georgia, how dare them russians step on our soil, I'm gonna grab my shotgun and go kill some russians, oh wait, what color are the russians again?
man, if only i can digg engadget's comments......
It will be a kind of trouble to find a piece of cloth to put on then.
A CPU from China? Make sure to double check it's not just some plastic with pins...Let's not forget all the fake memory chip / poisoned dumplings / haagen-dazs made in toilets...
haggen-dazs made in toilets? get the fudge out! i made that a couple times after eatting icecream while having a stomach problems, damn chinese is ripping me off again!
No international patents could possibly have been violated in the development of this processor.
to hanxiao,
"How much do you know TAIWAN? Have you been to there? Living there? "
just copy and paste.
Probably the US government has much more low profile ways of breaking their own privacy laws than hacking a CPU ... it's still very hard to encrypt your Windows or Linux PC in a CIA-proof way ... why do you think that is? ... I hear no one complaining about that ...
You have to realize that limiting privacy opens up your PC to Intelligence Agencies abroad and Crime Syndicates just as well ...
Nothing new there ...
China is the second largest exporter of goods in the world ... after Germany .... not after the US ...
Chips designed in the US are mostly made in Asia for over a decade already. Also hightech. And yes ... you can also get low priced trash if you want ... they make t all ... if you buy it.
Quality is giving people what they expect. That's what China does. And the US doesn't. That's why US industrial production declines and China production grows.
US firms have moved their own production to China. That's not some a communist plot. It's market economy.
Evolve or live with it.