China claims supercomputer among world's fastest

''China is the future; american will wither away in it's own feces. Outsourcing, greed, incompetence, and sheer laziness allows other...''

China announced its fastest supercomputer yet Thursday in the country's latest show of its goal to become a world leader in technology.

China's National University of Defense Technology, a military academy, unveiled the machine that would have ranked fourth in the most recent Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, state media said. The supercomputer, named Milky Way, can theoretically perform more than one million billion calculations per second, Xinhua news agency said. That figure, measured in "flops," or floating operation points per second, would make it China's first petaflop-class machine.

The machine's data has been submitted for ranking in the Top500 list, which is next due out in November, Xinhua said, citing faculty at the university in China's inland Hunan province. The computer will be used for bio-medical computing, seismic data processing during oil exploration and for the design of "aerospace vehicles," it said.

The computer has over 11,000 microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices and cost at least 600 million yuan (US$88 million) to build, the agency said. It will be moved to a supercomputing center in the northeastern city of Tianjin later this year, Xinhua said.

Dawning, a Chinese government-backed hardware maker, is separately designing a petaflop supercomputer it hopes to deploy next year. That system is planned to use Godson CPUs, also known by the name Loongson, a domestic chip line designed with government funding to expand China's pool of domestically owned technology.

China-made CPUs will also be added to the Milky Way supercomputer in the future to further boost its speed, Xinhua said.

HP IS talking with China's three mobile carriers...

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal-computer maker by sales, said it is talking with China's three mobile carriers about offering small, portable computers along with their services.

Demand in China, the world's second-largest PC market by shipments, appears to be coming back. Shoppers bought HP laptops at a Beijing mall in January.

The possible collaborations with China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., and China Telecom Corp. to offer mobile broadband-enabled mini-notebooks, called netbooks, would help expand HP's sales channels in China, said an HP spokeswoman.

HP, Dell Inc. and other PC makers have similar arrangements with wireless carriers in Europe and other regions.










An HP Mini 110 computer. HP executives introduced several new products in Beijing on Wednesday, including a notebook computer, the HP Mini 110 series, which weighs 2.5 pounds and will cost $299.

"We are living in a challenging economic time," said See Chin Teik, senior vice president of the personal systems group of HP's Asia-Pacific operations.

In China, the world's second-largest PC market by shipments, demand appears to be coming back, with HP notebooks enjoying the highest growth category of its China PC sales, but HP executives remained cautious on their outlook.

Mr. See said HP's sales grew faster in China in its second fiscal quarter ended April 30, than the local PC market as a whole. HP's gains in China translated to an increase in market share to 13.7% in the first calendar quarter from 10.9% in the previous quarter, according to market researcher IDC.

HP has made significant progress over the past two years, surpassing Chinese PC makers like Founder Electronics Co. to become the second-largest vendor in the country after Lenovo Group Ltd.

Isaiah Cheung, vice president of the personal-systems group for the company's China and Hong Kong operations, said sales growth in China will shift toward lower-tier cities, and sales in rural China will grow over the next three years

HP currently has service centers in 425 Chinese cities, up from 325 at the end of last year, he said.

The company highlighted four new products on Wednesday. In addition to the HP Mini 110, HP launched an all-in-one desktop computer, the HP Pavilion MS200, which will start at $599.

The lineup further emphasizes low prices as commercial and consumer PC demand has slowed world-wide because of the weakened economy.

The company posted a 17% drop in profit in its second quarter on revenue of $27.4 billion and saw a 19% drop in revenue from its PC division.

Chief Executive Mark Hurd said earlier this month that he isn't seeing any improvement in the current quarter, and the company expects revenue to decline 4% to 5% for the fiscal year.

Comtech Gains Deal to Provide Mobile TV Solution for Handsets

The Comtech Group has gained a series of contracts for providing customized module solutions for mobile handsets, the company said.

The shipment of the module solutions is likely to start in December 2007.

The solutions are aimed at enabling cell phone users to watch TV programs broadcast in China on their mobile handsets. Subscribers can receive any local and free channels broadcast in China.

The idea of having TV on mobile phones has been growing tremendously along with the screening technology which has also advanced to deliver seamless viewing experience. Promising to be more fun and entertaining, approximately 50 million mobile phones with this new feature is expected to be shipped in 2008.

The system proves to be more reliable and cost-effective alternative to existing technologies.

"Mobile TV function is set to be the next-cool-feature for mobile phones in 2008. Our solution is innovative and practical. Since it is mobile network independent, everyone can watch real time broadcast TV programs using a cell phone in China, with or without 3Gnetworks," Jeffrey Kang, Comtech president and CEO, said.

Kang also mentioned that this innovation will enable users to watch their favorite program with their cell phones whenever and wherever they want.

Comtech focuses on the digital media, mobile handset and telecom equipment end-markets for their customized design modules while also offering business and engineering services to their large telecom equipment vendor customers.

Cisco to spend US$16b in China

Cisco to spend US$16b in China

Cisco Systems Inc, the world's largest networking equipment maker, yesterday unveiled a US$16 billion expansion plan to boost its presence in China, one of the world's most dynamic telecom markets.

The plan includes expanding its procurement, manufacturing and research and development capacity, and increasing investment in China's education sector and high-growth companies through its venture capital vehicle.

"We are going to the next chapter in China," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco. "The announcements underscore both China's strategic importance to Cisco's global operations and the broad range of growth opportunities presented by the market."

The plan, following a pledged investment of US$1.16 billion in India on Tuesday, underlines Cisco's increasing aggressiveness in cracking emerging markets. It pledged a US$1.16 billion investment in India within two years.

A large portion of the US$16 billion in China would be spent on procurement, which totaled US$7 billion in the past five years.

As part of the new initiative, Cisco said it will spend US$17.5 million buying into China's top e-commerce firm Alibaba.com, which is expected to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong next Tuesday.

Cisco also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Development Bank to set up a US$100 million program to provide capital and expertise for high-growth Chinese companies. Cisco has invested more than US$700 million in Chinese start-ups over the past few years.

It also agreed to inject US$400 million into a wholly owned subsidiary in China that specializes in financing and leasing services.

The subsidiary, Cisco Systems Capital China, began operation in 2006, aiming to provide financing facilities to Cisco's customers in China.

"We are now seeing more and more innovations coming for the market," said Chambers.

(China Daily November 2007)