China to define national CPU architecture spec

The Chinese government has started a program that sees the creation of a national processor architecture. According to the agency responsible for the initiative, the processor could become a requirement for use in any project seeking government funding such as purchases of computers or smartphones.

At least five existing processor architectures are up for consideration as the basis of the standard. The initiative also could be used to define its own instruction set architecture or extend an existing one.

Representatives from about 20 China organizations attended the meeting, including communications companies Huawei and ZTE, as well as a number of academic groups.

The effort is one of several led by China's leaders in an effort to set its own standards and thus own intellectual property rather than paying for IP from foreign companies. China has already set its own standards in everything from CD/DVD players to surveillance video systems.

- Rick Merritt
??EE Times