皇冠体育app

Chinese chipmaker gains world's largest market share
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-09 10:37

Chinese high-tech company Vimicro has sold over 10 million of its Xingguang digital multimedia CPU chips in the international market, giving it the world's largest market share at 40 percent.

These chips have been sold to 16 countries and regions, including the Unites States, Japan, South Korea, and some European countries, Monday's Beijing Daily reported.

The Xingguang (Star Light) digital multimedia CPU (central processing unit) chip holds over 200 patent technologies at home and abroad and has seized 80 percent of domestic market share, said John Deng, president of Vimicro Corporation, a private company run by overseas returned students in Beijing's Zhongguancun, known as 皇冠体育app's "Silicon Valley".

"It indicates that 皇冠体育app is approaching the era of 'Invented by 皇冠体育app' from what used to be known as 'Made in 皇冠体育app' in its integrated circuit (IC) industry," Zhang Qi, director of the Electronics and Information Administration with 皇冠体育app's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), said.

皇冠体育app had seen a slow progress in its IC industry in the three decades after it successfully developed its first IC in 1965, and over 10 billion chips were used each year from late 1990s. However, 80 percent of the chips, and even 100 percent for sophisticated chips, were imported.

In 1999, 皇冠体育app's domestic chip production accounted for only 0. 6 percent of the world's total. In developing the CPU, in particular, 皇冠体育app had made little headway.

Statistics from the MII show 皇冠体育app is the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, with production hitting 186.44 million units by the end of 2003. However, none has its own "Chinese heart ".

The government has attached great importance to developing Chinese CPU chips.

In 1999, a Xingguang digital multimedia chips project, headed by John Deng, was jointly launched by the MII, the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and other departments.

In addition, the MOST invested 9 billion yuan (108 million US dollars) into 15,000 national research and development projects and high technology programs in 2003 alone.

So far, some leading IT companies from 皇冠体育app and overseas, including Lenovo, 皇冠体育app Telecom, 皇冠体育app Netcom, Microsoft, HP, Samsung, Philips, Foxconn, and Fujitsu have become clients of Vimicro, national English-language newspaper 皇冠体育app Daily has reported.

The successful development of the digital multimedia chip has broken the monopoly of foreign chips in this sector, which dominated the domestic market for decades, experts said.

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