BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of 80 computers powered by home-grown Chinese CPUs are undergoing user tests, Wu Shaogang, a manager from manufacturer Lemote Technology Co. told Xinhua on Thursday.

    This means the home-made chip Godson II E has finished lab tests and moved into pilot commercial operation.

    Lemote, based in Changshu, in east China's Jiangsu Province, will put a total of 1,000 computers on the market before the Chinese Lunar New Year.

    The computer, which uses a Linux operating system, comes with a 40-gigabyte hard drive and 256 megabytes of memory. It costs 1,599 yuan (about 200 U.S. dollars), and users have to buy the monitor, keyboard and mouse separately, the company said on its website.

    Godson II E was developed by the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    China started CPU research and development in 2001, and the first chip, Godson I, came out in September 2002, bringing the country's microprocessor industry a step closer to the world leading manufacturers in the United States and Japan.

    The ICT has since developed three more generations of the Godson -- Godson II B, Godson II C and Godson II E. The latter models triple the computing speed of the previous ones, said Li Guojie, director of the ICT.

    Godson II E is a significant achievement for China's 863 Program and Knowledge Innovation Project, which started in March 1986, aiming to boost the development of science and technology in the country, Li said.

    China needed to update its own science and technology so that they could keep pace with the country's rapid economic expansion.

    In an earlier report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that China has overtaken Japan to become the second largest spender on research and development.

    According to the organization, China's spending on science and technology surged more than 20 percent from 2005 to 136 billion U.S. dollars last year, second only to the United States, which spent 330 billion U.S. dollars.

    Backed by government determination and heavy investment, China has achieved several successes, particularly in the fields of information technology, aviation and magnetic levitation.