PC maker to boost use of Phytium processors

China Greatwall Technology Group Co Ltd, a domestic personal computer maker, revealed an ambitious plan to manufacture up to 4 million units of PCs with a homegrown independent Phytium central processing unit and a Kylin operating system by the end of this year.

"The new PCs are set to aid the optimization of China's cyberspace security," Song Liding, the president of the company, said at an event marking the first unit of the Greatwall PC with the domestically produced Phytium CPU and Kylin operating system to roll off the production line in the city of Tianjin in late July.

The domestic computer market has been dominated by the Windows CPU and Intel operating system. Local governance and cybersecurity have no threshold for those foreign brands.

The company invested 100 million yuan ($14.2 million) in its Tianjin production base and its annual production capacity could hit 300,000 units with an industrial revenue of up to 1.8 billion yuan during the first phase of the project.

Song lauded the "Chinese speed" that the first batch of the PCs were manufactured and hit the market within "20 days "since the company began production in Tianjin.

The move follows another production base in Yantai, Shandong province, which produced the first unit in July. With an investment of up 2 billion yuan, the Yantai center will see its annual production hit 300,000 units.

This year, the company began investing and launching production in 10 centers around China, including Wuhan, Hubei province, Zhengzhou, Henan province and Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

The new batch of computers will serve the rising demand of the nation's cybersecurity market, Song said.

"The company, in fact, is facing the challenges brought by the shortage of talent in the cybersecurity sector," Zheng Yejun, president of the Tianjin branch of the company under the Greatwall Group, said.

Li Zhening, Kylin Software vice-general manager, told China Daily in a previous interview the company's critical steps this year are to enroll massive staff in a bid to cater to the escalating demand for the market.

Kylin announced it would harness human resources as the company tries to establish a team of over 10,000 in the next five years in Tianjin.

Phytium and Kylin actually evolved from the Tianjin Hi-tech Area.

"With the arrival of the Great Wall last month, the cybersecurity market is expected to generate a combined revenue of 40 billion yuan annually in the area," said Chen Jinhong, vice-director of the administrative committee of Tianjin Hi-tech Area.

"The sector, poised to top trillions of yuan in industrial output, has strong resilience to the economic downturn and is set to cement a foothold during the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Another new domestic PC producer in Tianyue announced in July that its PCs with an independent homegrown CPU and operating system rolled off the production lines in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Haikou, Hainan province, and in the city of Chongqing.

It announced each of the plants' production capacity could hit 100,000 units and the firm is planning to go into the country's cybersecurity market.