China Vitae

Biography

Xia Peisu, female, Han nationality, is a native of Jiangjin, Sichuan Province. She graduated from Central University and received her doctorate form the University of Edinburgh.

Xia spent her career as a researcher at the Computer Technology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the 1950s, Xia designed and successfully trial-manufactured the first universal electronic digital computer independently designed in China. A decade later, she made systematic and creative achievements in the research and design of high-speed computer.

Xia was also responsible for developing the high-speed array processor, which improved the processing speed of regular seismic data in petroleum prospecting by a factor of ten. The operational speed of vector processor designed based on this principle is five times that of other processors then in the country. She was also responsible for designing and successfully developing multiple parallel computers of different types. Xia was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.