In an attempt to break the dominance of foreign companies, China has launched its first high-end server independently developed by a Chinese company, a report by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) said.
The Tiansuo K1 System, a server developed by Shangdong-based Inspur Group Co., made its debut in Beijing after four years of research and development costing 750 million yuan (about $120 million), the report said.
The server’s debut ends a situation in which core equipment for China’s information network has been controlled by foreign companies, according to Yang Xianwu, deputy director of the high and new technology department under the Ministry of Science and Technology, during the launching ceremony.
China has been dependent on imports for high-end servers for a long time, and the technology and market are monopolized by international giants including IBM and HP, the PNA report said.
High-end servers have much higher processing capacity than regular ones and are core equipment for financial, telecommunication, energy and other important industries, it noted.
Xu Wen, an official with China’s Banking Regulatory Commission, said the banking industry has strong demand for high-end servers, but prices of imported products are usually much higher than those on foreign markets.
A survey showed that the average price for such servers in China are 2.4 times those found in the United States, the PNA story indicated.
Some 15.2 billion yuan were spent on high-end servers in China in 2012, according to Sun Pishu, chairman of Inspur Group.
“It is going to be a new challenge for the company to win a share in a market totally dominated by foreign companies,” Sun added. ? PNA/Xinhua
