In 2001, China started a development program funded by the government to build a single-core processor. The final result was launched in 2002 under the name Godson-1, also known as the Dragon chip, and was succeeded by faster models in the form of Godson-2, which was based on the original design. China has raised the bar by gathering 200 researchers from ICT (Institute of Computing Technology) and start the development of Godson-3. The new processor will be quad-core and is expected to arrive sometime next year. ICT director Zhiwei Xu revealed that there is also plans for an octo-core model, Godson-4?
Analysts believe that China’s continued work with Godson is yet another way to become technologically independent as it is today still reliant on foreign companies to supply cutting edge technology, e.g. Intel or AMD.
Excerpt;
“Both versions will be built using 65-nanometer lithography processes, which are a generation older than Intel’s current 45-nanometer processes. Importantly, Godson-3 is scalable, meaning that more cores can be added to future generations without significant redesign. Additionally, the architecture allows engineers to precisely control the amount of power that it uses. For instance, parts of the chip can be shut down when they aren’t in use, and cores can operate at various frequencies, depending on the tasks that they need to perform. The four-core Godson-3 will consume 10 watts of power, and the eight-core chip will consume 20 watts, says Xu.”
Beside the fact that Godson-3 is expected to perform much better than its predecessor, the software compatibility as been improved considerably. Previous versions have not been x86-compatible, which means that most of today’s software applications would not run, unless emulated. This has been fixed thanks to 200 new instructions that is supposed to emulate x86 with up to 80 percent performance, compared to a native x86 processor.
Godson-3 will hardly be the performance equivalent of any of the processors AMD and Intel offers today and Xu admits that it is still far behind in the development compared to the International competition. They’re doing their best to catch up though.
