News on China's scientific and technological development.

taxiya said:

US made sanctions on Iran, punishing any companies doing business with Iran. These sanctions were out of the scope of UN sanctions, but EU did follow US demand in fear of blow back. These EU business are bigger than ASML, oil companies and more. Does UA sanction includes civilian aircraft? DidThat is true, right?

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Do you mean that Airbus has to get clarity before committing resources to building 100 planes, end of the day if some one owns the rights to components you can't just ignore that fact and it takes time to get alternatives! That's what they call the rule of law.



When the US banned its parts for satellites destined for China under ITAR Thales Alenia redesigned them to be devoid of US parts, are those the actions of a "collaborator" or a company fulfilling a commercial need?

taxiya said:

Trump recently threatened sanctions on Russia. EU has protested that those sanctions should not hurt EU's interest, right? The north stream natural gas project connecting Russia and Germany is put at a halt due to Danish "hesitation"/blockage. It happened just a month ago, isn't it?

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Do you mean this pipeline that they've actually just started to construct (on the German side)? or some different pipeline? Picked a Polish citation don't think they can be considered pro Russian!

taxiya said:

Neither EU as a whole nor Denmark as a country dared to defy the demands. Why would Netherland be in a stronger position to defend ASML? There are numerous NGOs, political opposition factions there to speak for US and effectively act on behalf of US in Europe. EU could not stop the Syria adventure that created the refugee crisis for Europe. What do you expect then?

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See previous citation your argument is based off an incorrect assertion. Also Libya was an Anglo-French inspired mis-adventure that went awry and a cause of significant refugees, Syria was/is a civil war so not sure what you mean by "EU stopping the Syria Adventure", stopping the Syrians, Russians, the Turks, the US or the Iranians? or should it be selective? One of the things I like about China's foreign policy is its largely non-interference approach.

taxiya said:

As of SK and Taiwan, have you heard that the government in Taiwan just "refreshed" (or tightening) their approval procedure regarding TSMC's business with mainland China, particularly ZTE? What an coincidence? Or a conspiracy theory?

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ZTE was banned from using US IP, since Qualcomm doesn't manufacture snapdragons, TSMC does, that's where it gets enforced, that's different from if ZTE went to TSMC with an original design that doesn't contain any US IP.

taxiya said:

Why did Japan backed out from the trilateral FTA among China, SK and Japan when they were in deep negotiation, and then joined the TPP out of nowhere? Why did the Diaoyu islands dispute came up right before the FTA and TPP struggle? Coincidence again? Conspiracy theory again?

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Trump pulled out of the TPP, AFTER it was negotiated, so what's your point? Governments pull out of negotiations? It's pointless negotiating under duress?

taxiya said:

As of the WA and CoCom, that is poteito, potato. Same shit with different colors. Russia is a signatory, so was Russia a member of the now defunct G-8. And Russia being a member has nothing to China not being cut off of her supply chain. China is not a member of international space station but Russia is. So long as China is not a member of WA, WA can and will be used against China. There is a reason why China was not a member of it. You get the picture?

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The G7 was/is a "club" of the 7 largest Western Economies and a "forum" it invited Russia to participate then it didn't! WA is a loose coupling of 42 countries that exchanges information about arms shipments. There are reasons why China, like Israel, isn't a member because there are obligations on the export side as well as the import side, India just joined in 2017, as a buyer not a seller of arms its happy to join because the obligations on the sell side doesn't matter to them.

Not every action how ever tangential is purposefully designed to be anti-china, It can't be the case that every action by any government isn't in their own interests but a proxy for the USA against China. There is no doubt that the present US administration is hell bent on doing something about China, they might even go scorched earth, instead of bitching and playing it up what are the alternatives, what should China be doing to maintain trade with the rest of world that's under US pressure? Your "Fortress China" mentality simply plays into the hands of the US in isolating China, trust no one everyone is a puppet or enemy.

Each and every country has national interests and promotes them to the best of their capability, some times they are aligned, some times they are not. It is fair to say that most European governments have more aligned interests with the US than with China, that's a long way away from characterising them all as impotent US stooges devoid of self interest and if you choose to treat them as such that's one sure way of ensuring you have no aligned interests.

now I read
China to launch first rocket developed by private company
Xinhua| 2018-05-08 20:24:02

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China will launch the first commercial rocket developed by a private enterprise in mid-May, the company said Tuesday.

Shu Chang, CEO of One Space said its rocket OS-X was now at a testing ground in northwest China preparing for the first launch.

Established in August 2015, One Space is China's first private company which has a license to develop carrier rockets. The company so far has two rocket series, the OS-X and the OS-M.

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hkbc said:

Do you mean that Airbus has to get clarity before committing resources to building 100 planes, end of the day if some one owns the rights to components you can't just ignore that fact and it takes time to get alternatives! That's what they call the rule of law.

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When the US banned its parts for satellites destined for China under ITAR Thales Alenia redesigned them to be devoid of US parts, are those the actions of a "collaborator" or a company fulfilling a commercial need?



Do you mean this pipeline that they've actually just started to construct (on the German side)? or some different pipeline? Picked a Polish citation don't think they can be considered pro Russian!

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See previous citation your argument is based off an incorrect assertion. Also Libya was an Anglo-French inspired mis-adventure that went awry and a cause of significant refugees, Syria was/is a civil war so not sure what you mean by "EU stopping the Syria Adventure", stopping the Syrians, Russians, the Turks, the US or the Iranians? or should it be selective? One of the things I like about China's foreign policy is its largely non-interference approach.



ZTE was banned from using US IP, since Qualcomm doesn't manufacture snapdragons, TSMC does, that's where it gets enforced, that's different from if ZTE went to TSMC with an original design that doesn't contain any US IP.



Trump pulled out of the TPP, AFTER it was negotiated, so what's your point? Governments pull out of negotiations? It's pointless negotiating under duress?



The G7 was/is a "club" of the 7 largest Western Economies and a "forum" it invited Russia to participate then it didn't! WA is a loose coupling of 42 countries that exchanges information about arms shipments. There are reasons why China, like Israel, isn't a member because there are obligations on the export side as well as the import side, India just joined in 2017, as a buyer not a seller of arms its happy to join because the obligations on the sell side doesn't matter to them.

Not every action how ever tangential is purposefully designed to be anti-china, It can't be the case that every action by any government isn't in their own interests but a proxy for the USA against China. There is no doubt that the present US administration is hell bent on doing something about China, they might even go scorched earth, instead of bitching and playing it up what are the alternatives, what should China be doing to maintain trade with the rest of world that's under US pressure? Your "Fortress China" mentality simply plays into the hands of the US in isolating China, trust no one everyone is a puppet or enemy.

Each and every country has national interests and promotes them to the best of their capability, some times they are aligned, some times they are not. It is fair to say that most European governments have more aligned interests with the US than with China, that's a long way away from characterising them all as impotent US stooges devoid of self interest and if you choose to treat them as such that's one sure way of ensuring you have no aligned interests.

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You seem very disturbed by what I said and went a bit too far to interpret my words to something that I did not say.

Instead of answering every points you just said, I will answer your conclusion that I highlighted above. I was not advocating a "fortress China" or self-isolating, I was saying China should consider the risk and very real chance that some seemingly reliable source of things outside of American hands may not be safe as you may think they are. The AWAC deal with Israel was not objected by US for years when the project was open, but sabotaged by US at the last moment when the aircraft was ready for delivery (subquently sold to India). Do you think I blame Israel for that? Absolutely not, I know the pressure that was exerted on Israel. But China was to bare the consequence. Now getting back to Netherland, should you rely on their supply because you staunchly believed in the rule of law and commitment? I am afraid that it will be naïve to do so, in the mean time putting China at risk. Should you blame Netherland for a possible negative outcome? I won't because I know who is pulling the thread behind the scene.

Just add another example I missed. You remember the Aixtron sale to China? First blocked by Obama, then by Germany for security reason? So why would Netherland not do the same if Germany did so after the lobbying and pressure from US?

You may wish EU to be strong and defend its own interest in dealing with other countries including China, but EU is not a single country and its members states are very weak in resisting pressure from across the Atlantic, at least today and in the near future, unless EU became USE (United States of Europe) which I probably won't live long enough to see it happen.

To conclude, I am trying to say "凡事预则立，不预则废", roughly meaning "plan for the best, but prepare for the worst". It has nothing to do with "self isolation".

taxiya said:

....EU to be strong and defend its own interest in dealing with other countries including China, but EU is not a single country and its members states are very weak in resisting pressure from across the Atlantic, at least today and in the near future, unless EU became USE (United States of Europe) which I probably won't live long enough to see it happen.

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You're right in this regard and that doesn't mean their interest will necessary be in sync with the interest of China. There are those in the EU calling to work with U.S. , instead of against each other, in their tariffs dispute and turn it around and direct it against China. Of course the one or few EU countries (with trade surplus) will not necessarily agree to it, but they are still a minority of a larger group.

China launches new Earth observation satellite for environmental monitoring


TAIYUAN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday launched Gaofen-5, a hyperspectral imaging satellite, as part of the country's high-resolution Earth observation project.
The Gaofen-5 satellite was launched off the back of a Long March 4C rocket at 2:28 a.m. Beijing Time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province. It was the 274th flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.
The satellite can be used for comprehensive environmental monitoring.
The satellite is developed and produced by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and has a designed life of eight years.
According to Tong Xudong, chief designer of the Gaofen series, Gaofen-5 is the first China-developed satellite that can monitor air pollution. It can dynamically reflect the state of air pollution in China through the monitoring of air pollutants, greenhouse gases, and aerosols.
Gaofen-5 is able to obtain spectral information from ultraviolet to long-wave infrared radiation. It is the world's first full-spectrum hyperspectral satellite for comprehensive observation of the atmosphere and land.
Gaofen-5 has the highest spectral resolution among China's remote sensing satellites. It is equipped with six advanced observation payloads, such as shortwave infrared hyperspectral camera and a greenhouse gas detector.
It can investigate material composition through spectral imaging technology.
Wang Qiao, an official from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said the satellite can detect inland water, land surface environment and altered minerals, providing reliable data for China's environmental monitoring, resource exploration, and disaster prevention and mitigation.
It will help reduce China's dependence on foreign hyperspectral satellite data.
Since the Gaofen project began in 2010, China's view of the planet has become clearer.
China will also launch Gaofen-6 this year to form a constellation with other Gaofen satellites in orbit.

Quickie said:

You're right in this regard and that doesn't mean their interest will necessary be in sync with the interest of China. There are those in the EU calling to work with U.S. , instead of against each other, in their tariffs dispute and turn it around and direct it against China. Of course the one or few EU countries (with trade surplus) will not necessarily agree to it, but they are still a minority of a larger group.

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It is important to remember countries are made up of people with varying including conflicting interests, especially these days when many countries around the world are struggling with internal problems arising from much economic and technological change.

I found the following article regarding an alternative benchmark for supercomputers to be interesting reading:

After just three years in the field, the High Performance Gradients (HPCG) benchmark is emerging as the first viable new metric for the high performance computing crowd in decades [...]

In supercomputing circles, High Performance Linpack (HPL) has been the de facto benchmark for HPC systems for the last quarter of a century. Based on a dense system for linear equations, HPL is used to rank supercomputer performance on the 25-year-old TOP500 list [....] “The Linpack program used to represent a broad spectrum of the core computations that needed to be performed, but things have changed,” said Heroux. “The Linpack program performs compute-rich algorithms on dense data structures to identify the theoretical maximum speed of a supercomputer. Today’s applications often use sparse data structures, and computations are leaner.”

As such, HPCG was devised as an alternate metric to HPL that addresses these newer applications. To accomplish this, the benchmark uses a preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm, global collective operations, and sparse data structures. As Heroux suggested, it’s the latter that is key to doing what HPL does not do, namely stressing the memory subsystem.

That’s increasingly important since most systems, supercomputers or otherwise, are much more limited in memory performance than compute performance. While it’s been relatively easy to increase raw processor performance via multicore designs, it’s been much more difficult to build memory subsystems to feed those cores adequately. That’s why there’s a memory wall rather than a compute wall.

As a consequence, HPCG numbers for these big supercomputer systems are much more modest compared to HPL results. While a typical supercomputer usually achieves 50 to 90 percent of its peak performance with HPL, those same systems only deliver a few percentage points of peak running HPCG.

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The upshot is that under the HPCG benchmark the #1 system is actually Japan's RIKEN K system (#10 on HPL), while Tianhe-2 remains unchanged at #2. TaihuLight, which is #1 on the HPL benchmark, is only #5 on the HPCG benchmark.

Note that the article comes from the Top500 site (the site that publishes the HPL rankings) and as such is not obviously biased.

now I read
Chinese scientists develop fire-resistant, fire-detecting wallpaper
Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:53:56

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Chinese scientists have developed a fire-resistant wallpaper that not only can withstand flames, but also detect fires and trigger an alarm if a fire occurs.

The wallpaper was designed by scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Most of the wallpaper on the market today is made of highly flammable materials such as plant cellulose fibers or synthetic polymers, which can spread the fire rather than preventing it.

The new wallpaper can withstand a high temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius. It is made of an inorganic fire-resistant hydroxyapatite nanowire paper and a graphene oxide temperature sensor. The sensor is attached to the back of the wallpaper through a simple drop-casting process using an ink containing graphene oxide. It is then connected to the metal wire as an electrode.

Graphene oxide is not electrically conductive at room temperature, but can become conductive at high temperatures, triggering the fire alarm device.

The wallpaper is highly flexible and can be made into various shapes, dyed different colors, and printed with commercial printers.

The research was published in the journal ACS Nano in March.

Zhu Yingjie, the team leader, said that although the wallpaper is still in the early research phase, the research team is exploring low-cost mass production technology.

"We are also investigating more applications of the new fire-resistant inorganic paper, which might be used in other fields such as preserving important paper documents, battery separators, flame-retardant fiber-optic cables, catalytic paper, and flexible electronics," Zhu said.

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SMIC to start risk production of 14nm FinFET process in 1H19
Cindy Yu, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES
Friday 11 May 2018

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the largest China-based foundry house, will kick off risk production of its 14nm FinFET process and venture into the AI (artificial intelligence) chip sector in the first half of 2019 after entering volume production of 28nm HKC+ process in the second half 2018, according to the firm's co-CEO Liang Mong-song.

Liang said at a recent investor conference that SMIC will see an upper single-digit shipment ratio for 28nm process for the whole 2018, with the volume production of its 28nm HKC process to run close to that of its 28nm Poly-SiON process.

In terms of mature process platforms, Liang highlighted the performance upgrades of power management IC process platform, saying that capacities at all its 8-inch wafer fabs are running tight to meet ever-increasing demand for power management ICs including IGBT devices. He added that the high-voltage BCD (bipolar CMOS DMOS) process will be shifted to 12-inch fabs.

Liang also stressed that SMIC will step up its technological developments, aiming to build a comprehensive process platform integrating technologies, IP and design services. In particular, he disclosed, SMIC will move to develop complete AI-based ASIC IPs in the second half of 2019 to provide customers with total IC design solutions.

Sequential 7-9% revenue growth for 2Q18

On the same occasion, another co-CEO Zhao Haijun said SMIC posted better-than-expected revenue performances, continuous growth in market demand and increased capacity utilization in the first quarter of 2018.

Zhao said SMIC raked in revenues of US$831 million for the quarter, including revenues from photomask production, wafer test and other technology royalty incomes. The quarter's gross profits reached US$220.2 million for a margin rate of 26.5%. The company expected a sequential 7-9% revenue growth for the second quarter of 2018, with gross margin to be in the range of 23-25%.

SMIC has expanded the capacity at its 8-inch fab in Shenzhen to 447,750 wafers in the first quarter of 2018 from 442,750 of a quarter earlier, and the average capacity utilization rate has risen to 88.3%.

SMIC posted R&D expenses and capital expenses at US$123 million and US$322 million, respectively, for the first quarter of 2018.

Zhao also disclosed that SMIC now sees 40% of its revenues from the China market, and is in a good position to benefit from the growing popularity of consumer electronics and IoT devices.

In particular, he stressed, SMIC has led in providing foundry services for makers of power management ICs and image sensing devices, and will enjoy a 30% growth in the NOR/NAND flash foundry business in 2018.

now I read
Chinese scientists develop a photonic quantum chip for boosting analog quantum computing
Xinhua| 2018-05-12 02:47:06

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Chinese scientists demonstrated the first two-dimensional quantum walks of single photons in real spatial space, which may provide a powerful platform to boost analog quantum computing.

They reported in a paper published on Friday in the journal Science Advances a three-dimensional photonic chip with a scale up to 49-multiply-49 nodes, by using a technique called femtosecond direct writing.

Jin Xianmin, a quantum communication researcher with Shanghai Jiaotong University, who led the study, told Xinhua, it is the largest-scaled chip reported so far that allows for the realization of this two-dimensional quantum walk in real spatial space, and potential exploration for many new quantum computing tasks.

Jin and his colleague showed that the dimension and scale of quantum system could be employed as new resources for boosting the quantum computing power.

The researchers said, universal quantum computers came under the spotlight since last year, as IBM, Google, Intel and the rivals constantly competed to announce their new records on the achieved number of qubits.

However, universal quantum computers are far from being feasible before error correction and full connections between the increasing numbers of qubits could be realized.

In contrast, analog quantum computers, or quantum simulators, can be built in a straightforward way to solve practical problems directly without error correction, and potentially be able to beat the computational power of classical computers in the near future.

Quantum walk in a two-dimensional array is a strikingly powerful and straightforward approach to analog quantum computing. It maps certain computing tasks into the coupling matrix of the quantum paths, and provides efficient solutions to those even classically intractable problems.

Prominent quantum advantages will be promptly achievable as long as the scale of quantum systems goes above a considerably large level.

During the past two decades, a traditional and challenging method has been through increasing the photon number, which suffers from probabilistic generation of single photons and multiplicative loss, according to the researchers.

This ingenuous alternative way from increasing the external physics dimension and complexity of the quantum evolution system may accelerate future analog quantum computing, said Jin.

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