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Computer
Technology in China
Pankaj Jalote
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Kanpur - 208016; India
This article discusses the state of technology in China in various fields of
computer technology, and compares the situation in China with the situation
in India. The article is based on the impressions formed and information
obtained by the author during a two week visit in Oct '91 to various
institutes in China. It is not based on any scientific survey conducted by
the author.
R&D and Education Setup
Besides Universities, there are many other Institutes that are involved
in both R&D and education activities. Many of these Institutions come under
Chinese Academy of Sciences, or CAS, which is like Indian National Science
Academy (INSA) and CSIR combined. Some of the major labs working in computer
related areas (with their approximate technical personnel strength) are:
Institute of Software (500), CAD Laboratory (100), Software Laboratory
(150), Computer Center (500), Institute of Computing Technology (1000),
Application institute (300), East China computer technology institute (600).
These institutes are also involved in higher education. For example,
Institute of Software has approximately 40 M.S. students and 15 Ph.D.
students. For courses for these students, CAS organizes short intensive
courses by visiting faculty.
These institutes are also involved in commercial and contractual activity.
Hence, a large percentage of their staff is involved in contractual type of
software development work. The contracts may be from Chinese or overseas
companies. The institutes have to ``earn'' much of their needed money from
these commercial activities. For example, Institute of Software now meets
about 60% or its total expenditure from its revenues; the remaining 40%
comes from the Government. A few years ago it was not the case, and the
govt. paid all the expenses.
Another interesting aspect is that these institutes form and run commercial
companies. For example, the Institute of computing technology has some 15
different companies that are engaged in manufacturing and commercial
activities. Many a times these companies are joint venture with some foreign
company. However, over the years these companies have become largely
independent, and are essentially state owned enterprises with some technical
and financial ties with the parent institution.
Hardware Technology
Development of computers in China was started by its Institute of
Computing Technology in late 1950s. Since then China has made a few
experimental computers. Currently, commercial production is essentially
limited to ATs, 286, 386 based machines. In addition, the research
institutes produce some special purpose compute systems (eg. for scientific
calculation) for different institutions. These systems typically are not
produced on a commercial scale. Recently the Institute of computing
technology produced a min-super computer with vector processing capability.
However the import of hardware is very liberal, and most institutes and
universities have imported mainframes/minis/workstations. Most major
computer manufacturers have offices in Beijing for processing orders.
Software Technology
China also has its eyes set on the global software market, and chinese govt.
is trying to develop the software industry. They also seem to be acutely
aware of India's effort in this direction. There are a lot of institutes and
companies involved in software. However, the domestic software industry in
only a few years old. Most of the R&D effort is geared towards adapting or
enhancing Unix (eg. Unix kernel has been modified to accept some commands in
Chinese), developing language interfaces for Chinese, and CASE tools. Much
of the work is in developing software for users. Even here, the projects are
typically not too large.
Networking
Some institutes have some sort of local area network operating. However,
there are many others who do not have their machines networked, and effort
is currently underway in that direction. Standard networking techniques are
being used, and there is little R&D in this area.
There are not too many wide area networks that are operational. In Beijing,
effort is underway to connect together the three major institutes in the
area - Beijing University, Tsinghua University, and Institute of Software.
However, there is a nationwide network of state and planning agency that is
operational and has been in use for many years. This network is based on
telephone lines and satellite links (for large distance connections
satellite links are used). This network is used for collection various types
of data (census, economic, resource availability, crops ...)
CAD and Graphics
There is a lot of activity going on in this area. There is an institute
dedicated for CAD activity which keeps inviting professionals from all over
the world. The center also undertakes work for industries (eg. for the
supercomputer made by the Institute of Computing Technology, the CAD
laboratory designed a 16 layer PCB). Many industries of various types are
employing CAD in their work.
Level of Computerization
Even though China is a communist country, the level of computerization is
reasonable and all the signs point to an increased use of computers. Most
major factories seem to have some kind of information system for payroll,
personnel management and materials management and some office automation
system. Most of the MIS systems have been developed locally. The airline
reservations are computerized, but the system was developed in US.
Computerization of railway reservation has recently started, thought the
plan is quite ambitious. For other activities, railways seem to be using
computers.
Some libraries have been computerized, though computers are used only for
automating library personnel work. So, for example, while the issue and
return are computerized, catalog search by user is not. Hotels, some stores,
and many govt departments also use computers. Banking is getting into it,
and already there are some branches which are networked.
Education and Training
This is definitely the strongest area in Computer landscape in China today.
Most of the major universities have computer science programs. Besides
these, the major R&D institutions are also involved in higher education
(M.S. and Ph.D.) in a large scale.
For example, each year most of the major universities like Beijing Univ,
Tsinghua Univ, Fudan Univ., produce more than 100 Bachelors, about 60-80
M.S., and 5-10 Ph.D.s. Then a large institute turns out about 30-50 M.S.,
and 2-5 Ph.D.s every year. Even if one takes the top 30 universities in the
country, the total number of computer scientists being produced every year
is around 4000. In Shanghai alone, out of a total of some 40 odd univs,
about 20 offer computer science, and produce more than 1000 computer
scientists every year! One estimate of total computer scientists being
produced every year is a staggering 10,000.
It seems that most universities have computer centers, besides having
computing facilities in the computer science departments. So, the CS
graduates are likely to have a fair amount of hands-on experience. Due to
this large number of computer scientists being produced every year, finding
technically qualified manpower for any computerization activity does not
seem to be a problem. (It should also be pointed out that according to
Chinese law, a student cannot go overseas for 5 years after graduating. So,
all graduates actually have to stay and serve the country).
Despite being perceived as a closed economy, importing computer equipment
seems to be surprisingly quick. For an academic institute, from the day of
deciding to obtain a computer system to the day of actually receiving it can
be as short as 6-9 months!! No wonder many large computer manufacturers like
IBM, Digital, Unysys, Bull have all offices in Beijing.
Comparison with India
In hardware production, software production, and networking India does seem
to be slightly ahead, though overall there is not any significant difference
in the technology level in the two countries.
In education and manpower development China is definitely far ahead of
India. It produces a lot more computer scientists. Since software
development is labor intensive, China has an advantage in this regarding
software business and exports, and to undertake large scale computerizations
in the country.
The major advantage India has, ironically, is not related to technology. And
that is the knowledge of english. It seems that China is acutely aware of it
(many people asked me about the level of english of Indians). This is
actually an important advantage as far as software exports go, since
communication is a critical component of software development. So, if India
can produce the manpower in required numbers, it will definitely have an
edge over China in the world market.
--
Pankaj Jalote, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science and
Engineering, IIT Kanpur 208016
Tel: +91-512-597619 (o)
Tel: + 91-512-598501 (r)
Fax: +91-512-590725/413
Email: jalote [AT] iitk.ac.in
URL: www.cse.iitk.ac.in |
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