China Electronics Corp, the country's largest State-owned comprehensive electronic information enterprise group, has given full play to its advantages in cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, to help combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. [Photo/CEC]

Kylin Software, a new company recently established in Tianjin, is devoting itself to developing a homegrown operating system named ‘Kylin’.

The company is a result of deepening strategic cooperation between China Electronics Corp (CEC), the country's largest State-owned comprehensive electronic information group, and the Tianjin municipal government. 

An investment of tens of billions of yuan will be made and an elite team of over 10,000 researchers will be put in place by the company to develop several independent operating systems over the next five years, according to CEC.

With such intensive input, the company aims to build three products: a desktop and server operating system, a cloud operating system and an embedded operating system.

In addition to the human and financial resources that have been put towards this ambitious goal, the new company is also supported by the groups that have come together to create it.

Signs of operating systems by Tianjin Kylin Information and China Standard Software

The company is an integration of China Standard Software and Tianjin Kylin Information, two of China's major software developers, which are affiliates of CEC.

Established in 2014 by CEC and the Tianjin municipal government in the port city’s Binhai New Area, Tianjin Kylin Information serves both military and civilian purposes.

With support from the National University of Defense, its systems have played an important role in facilitating the test and control systems of China's four major satellite launch bases.

In 2017 and 2018, it won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Awards for two consecutive years.

In 2019, the operating system was widely used in nearly 100 banks and insurance companies, including the Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

The other group, China Standard Software, established in 2003, was a professional research and development company for operating system products.

Since its establishment, it has registered 270 software copyrights, 134 patents, and more than 240 awards.

Lian Maojun, Tianjin deputy mayor, said that the city will fully support the development and industrialization of the domestic operating system.

Policy support will be given in the form of tax reductions, key worker benefits, housing, application facilitation, and in the formation of a comprehensive industrial ecology.

The company has begun to recruit up to a thousand talents from across the world.

Ni Guangnan, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said more efforts are needed to accelerate independent innovations in core technologies and establish a safe domestic information technology system.

China's software operating system industry is currently dominated by foreign companies, such as Microsoft's Windows, Google's Android and Apple's Mac OS.