It marks another advance in the country's chip design after domestic scientists successfully developed the country's first home-grown all-purpose central processing unit (CPU) chip - Godson in October 2001.

The eDSP21600, designed by Shanghai Jiaotong University, is a 16-bit processor with a maximum frequency of 200 megahertz, representing a middle-grade international level, according to yesterday's city government press conference.

The DSP and CPU represent the two core technologies of the chip industry.

DSP technologies, which can transfer real signals into digital ones at a high speed, are now widely used in cell phones, household electrical appliances, computers and cars.

China, a major electrical appliance manufacturer, is the world's largest consumer of DSP chips, using around 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) of these micro-processors last year, according to the statistics revealed yesterday.

But all DSP chips currently used in China are imported.

Experts at the Ministry of Information Technology predict that the country's demand for DSP chips will increase fivefold by 2005.

Zhang Ao, vice-director of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, said the city government will further support the upgrading and marketing of the home-grown chip.

Chen Jin from Shanghai Jiaotong University, who is also director of the DSP design project, revealed yesterday that the university has formed an integrated developing platform for DSP chip design and also has a research team consisting of hundreds of local scientists.

Chen's team is tasked with developing an advanced 32-bit DSP chip by the end of this year, according to its plans.

Sources also revealed that Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation, based in the city's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, will mass produce the Chinese-designed chips.

(China Daily February 27, 2003)