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Chinese "Dragon" Chip On Sale

Posted by timothy on from the center-of-the-world dept.

mrseigen writes "The processor that Chinese firms have been working on as a response to foreign equipment and software is now available for pre-order. The Inquirer did an article here, and the company website is here. The chip will supposedly ship with Midori Linux."

17 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. The case sticker!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh man! It's gonna say "Enter the Dragon" isn't it!!!

  2. Sure i'll buy one by zephc · · Score: 5, Funny

    but only if the money is used to torture political dissidents

    [/joke-notice-for-the-humorless]

    --
    "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
    1. Re:Sure i'll buy one by Frymaster · · Score: 5, Informative
      let's get some facts out about tibet and china before anything gets out of hand:
      • tibet was a province of china until 1911. it was a sovereign nation for 39 years before the 1950 invasion by the pla
      • tibet was not, during that time or before a democracy... or even anything remotely like one
      • tibet was, in fact, an oligarchical theocracy before the invasion. over 90% of the population were "landless serfs" which basically means "plantation slave".
      • the reasons for the 1950 invasion by the pla were threefold: 1) to acquire strategic position between pro-western india and china at the height of the cold war 2) to regain the territory of 1911 3) to liberate the 90% of the population from slavery with what was seen as then as a pro-people ideology (maoism) - remember, the chinese revolution itself was very young and idealistic at that time.
      • after the initial invasion, the dali lama was allowed to keep his existing position and control and send a delegation to beijing. this lasted until the dali lama encouraged his followers to rise up against the pla in 1959. dali lama had to have known that this uprising was doomed to failure, massive deaths of tibetans and resulting repercussions.
      • the chinese government has spent an enormous amount of money on the modernization of tibet - roads, schools, industry an airport.
      • one of the primary changes china made to tibet was land reform. peasants in china now are owner/operators of their own farms and not slaves as they were under the theocracy before the invasion
      • reng rong, the general in charge of the tibet occupation was sacked in 1979 for incompetence. he had failed to bring tibet up to the standard beijing had desired.

        no point. just some facts. a refreshing change of pace for slashdot.

      --

      2 1337 4 u!

    2. Re:Sure i'll buy one by jcr · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, and Hitler built the Autobahn. So what?

      All of the statements above are true, but it is also true that the oligarchal theocracy of the Dalai Llama never had anyone killed for trying to leave the country.

      Also, you omitted the overriding reason for the invasion of Tibet: Mao needed to divert the attention of his subjects from his incompetence in agricultural policy, which was killing millions of chinese through starvation.

      Far better to gloat about how the Tibetans were "liberated" (and gloss over the fact that the subjects of the Mao Dynasty were just as much enslaved as the Tibetans had ever been), than to let people talk about how many villages had been wiped out by the PLA for having the affrontery to try to keep enough of their harvest to stay alive for another year.

      Mao was a very lucky thug. He was not a Great Man,but just a long-winded cuthroat at the right place and the right time to beat Stalin's record.

      You left-wing whiners sure like to cut history's greatest mass-murderer a lot of slack, don't you?

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    3. Re:Sure i'll buy one by Troed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... and Israel is demolishing Palestinian houses on Palestinian land so that they can build the Berlin Wall #2.

      Israel, which is defended by the US at all cost.

      --
      it's in my head
  3. China is enormous by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And will be an enormous economic force in years to come.

    If they reduce their reliance on foreign IP (or non-free foreign IP) as well as foreign hardware, this can only be good for China, and only be bad for us (Less money flow into the IT industry) unless they produce a higher quality product (thus improving the industry).

    However, in the short term, you know, MS won't make as much money, neither will Intel, and I'm sure a lot of /.ers are really happy about that.

    --
    The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
  4. Re:namespace collision by Gareman · · Score: 5, Informative
    Midori is Japanese for "green", by the way. Nothing particularly special about the name.

    Try:

    Akai: Red Kuroi: Black Aoi: Blue Shiroi: White Murasaki: Purple

  5. Why on earth would I buy... by DavidBrown · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...a Dragon chip in the Year of the Ram? Dragon chips are so 4698. (Year 2000 for Gregorian Calendar fanatics out there)

    I'd rather buy a Ram chip - at least that way I know I'm being current.

    --
    144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
  6. Re:Yeah but... by psyconaut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Define "real computing"...you'd be surprised how good these chips would be for embedded use.

    Also how much horsepower do you really think you need to for basic email, web, word processing and accounts use? Remember: a lot of people used to run their entire businesses on IBM XTs!

    -psy

  7. Good news! by psyconaut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is actually pretty significant...and kudos to the Chinese for making it happen.

    About the only mainstream chip that I can think of off the top-of-my-head that's not U.S. bred is the ARM (which is British in origin). (I'm sure there are others, but you get my point).

    And for all of you who say "this chip has lame performance", think back 5-10 years. If you had something like this 10 years ago, you'd pee your pants. This is like going from 0-100Kmh for the Chinese....many don't have any computing resources....chips like these will start to make things accessible for many (although not all).

    Also remember back in 1986 when your relative who had a computer did all his accounts on an IBM XT? You don't need gobs of computing power to do basic business functions...and remember the majority of businesses *anywhere* are small businesses with less than 10 employees.

    Technology is also quite often culturally imbred....ever looked at how many consumer electronics devices are HUGE in Japan, but don't take off in the U.S.? It's that embedded cultural technology difference....and maybe with China having some homegrown options, they can develop systems that better meet the needs of their population.

    Anyhoo, just my two cents. :-)

    -psy

  8. Re:Yeah but... by tuxlove · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only problem is that these "dragon chips" are about equivilent to your average pentium 2, they can't hold a candle to anything coming out of the united states.

    For now, that is. China has massive potential, and some day in the not too distant future the US CPU industry could be eating their dust. This event is not to be shrugged off lightly. It should be viewed as a call to arms by US chip developers. If they instead fall asleep at the wheel, things could end up quite ugly for them.

    I am talking about raw performance here, BTW. The Chinese could some day produce chips that are faster than chips designed by the US. But that's not necessarily what's required for the Chinese to win. If they produce a chip with a very compelling price/performance ratio, that could also have a dramatic effect. Imagine a CPU with, as a theoretical example, half the speed of a top of the line Intel CPU, but for one tenth the price. The war might well be lost simply on this basis.

  9. My random observation by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I spent a good deal of time in China a couple of years back. All I have to say is, the many people whom I met all over the country were honest and worked very hard, and I think that they deserve better living conditions than they currently have.

    Their government is slowly but surely making progress towards a more reasonable form, and I hope that news technology developments like this are harbingers of improvement in their economy and the lives of the Chinese people in general.

  10. Escape from "Trusted Computing" hell? by orkysoft · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Looks like there'll be an alternative when all Intel and AMD are producing are Palladium chipsets and you'd rather not be "trusted" by Big Corps...

    --

    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  11. Nice SoC design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    V-Dragon is an embedded chip, it has an integrated memory controller (supporting 1GB of SDRAM), USB controller, 10/100Mbps Ethernet and PCI controller. Since everything you need is integrated on the CPU, it makes motherboards very simple.

    It won't be very fast, but it should be more than enoug for web-browsing and text-editing.

  12. You're missing the point. by RatBastard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are completely missing the point. The Chinese are not trying to make an Intell/AMD Killer. They are making a CPU with enough horsepower to run Linux and let people do office tasks - email, word processing, spreadsheets, etc... and other normal computing tasks. They are also making a CPU in-house, which means they don't need to worry about how Intel or AMD feels about them or even if the US government doesn't want them buying powerful chips.

    This isan't about playing DOOM3 or Half-Life2. This is about China having an IT sector that is not subject to the whims of non-Chinese companies or governments.

    --
    Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
  13. Re:Why should US trade by these rules? by Tomble · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Sorry, but I can't stand back from this. You may or may not be a troll, I believe you're not. Either way, sod it, I'm biting:
    F---- free trade.
    I can certainly empathise with that sentiment- all free trade really gives the world is unnaturally cheap goods; Cheap stuff is great, but what's the point if next-to noone can afford them (due to all the jobs going to slave owners and sweat-shops), and/or we all effectively become slaves ourselves? One or the other of these will naturally be the eventual outcome.

    But,

    I mean, what's the point of being the only nation in town that believes in free trade
    Unless I somehow misunderstood who you meant, you are in fact, saying that America believes in free trade.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Wait a moment, that actually isn't funny. Certainly not to the countries that ROT due to American (and yes, European too, I'll freely admit) double-standards on the free trade thing. America does sort of believe in free trade, but only when it serves its own interests. Otherwise, America believes America First. Policy speaks louder than words here, I'm afraid.

    The best solution is for everybody to agree quite clearly, that unfettered free trade is a fucking stupid idea, and that NOBODY should be forced to submit themselves to free trade agreements in the way that many 3rd world countries have been forced to before they were allowed vital foreign aid.

    --
    Be careful! New moon tonight.
  14. Re:Dragons /.'d Already by EinarH · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The last time this was up on slashdot someone mentioned performance equivalent to a Intel P2 450 MHz. Since this is a RISC CPU it will of course be stronger in diffrent areas but that is another discussion.

    But the real kicker with this CPU is the possibility for cheap dual and quad motherboards. If you can get 4 of these running under Linux or NetBSD the performance of one CPU don't mather that much. With a cost per CPU probably between $20-30* I would be all over tis offer.
    From a customers wiewpoint competition in the Quad-motherboard is appreciated as these MB's today cost insane amounts of money.

    All this depends on wheter they have added propper SMP support which is propably difficalt as they try to stay away of "IP" issues.

    *Wild guess of course, but they just can't cost above $30 if they expect them to sell in China.

    --

    Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.