Chinese military scientists develop secret, octopus-mimicking computer

Designed to mimic an octopus, a computer developed by mainland researchers is said to be able to change its physical structure.

Such flexibility reportedly enables the machine to deal with tasks varying from scientific computation to cybersecurity, with efficiency nearly 100 times that of traditional computers.

Though it has not been revealed precisely how it works, it is described as the first of its kind.

According to Xinhua, the secretive project is part of the State Hi-Tech Development Plan, or 863 programme. An expert panel under the programme concluded it represented "a breakthrough" in high-performance computing, Xinhua reported.

With this computer, China had "changed from a follower to leader", the panel was quoted as saying. It would enable China to develop its own computer chips, electronic devices and software programmes that are immune to sabotage from overseas, the experts were quoted as saying.

The project was led by Professor Wu Jiangxing, president of the Information Engineering University of the People's Liberation Army.