At the 4th Information Security Industry Development Forum held the other day, Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that in the past two decades, China’s information and communications, including integrated circuit and software, had made considerable progress, but there were still obvious shortcomings, notably in the chip and operating system.
“What we want is to establish our own information technology system, not one product or one technology. It is mainly about setting up our own technological system and ecological system, because key information technology won’t come on its own, but must be obtained through innovative breakthroughs.”
According to Ni, the world has two major chip architectures: one is Intel, and the other is ARM. Initially a UK company, ARM was then controlled by Softbank, and now the US company Nvidia sets about acquiring it. “If ARM was acquired, it would definitely put us at a distinct disadvantage, so I believe that our Ministry of Commerce may veto it, but whether it can work out, we don’t know. Anyway, we will not be comfortable with ARM in the future.”