How to inspire the next generation of China tech researchers? Give them a chip
- The country’s first domestically designed Quad core CPU chip, the Loongson 3A, was completed in 2009
It was a small gift designed to inspire big dreams. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences included samples of self-developed chips in an admission letter package sent to 400 undergraduate freshmen to encourage students to be more innovative and embrace the country’s goal of developing domestic high technologies.
A Loongson III chip was attached to an open letter to new students from university president Li Shushen, according to a post from the university’s public account on Chinese social media platform WeChat.
“It looks small but it can empower a big world. It is unpretentious but it is a portrayal of the independent research and development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,” Li said in the letter.
The Loongson, which translates as Dragon chip in English, was first developed by the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001. Subsequently, the country’s first domestically designed Quad core CPU chip, the Loongson 3A, was completed in 2009.
The sample chips attached to the letter were produced by Loongson Technology Corporation, established in 2010 as a joint venture investment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Beijing government with the goal of commercialising the research and development of CAS-developed chips.
Beijing student Zou Honggang was first among the freshmen to receive the chip when university staff delivered the package to him at home last week.