Chinese company puts Google's Android on laptops

Other computer makers including Hewlett-Packard and Taiwan's Acer and have also announced laptops running Android.

The move by Lemote Technology, based in China's Jiangsu province, is the first sign of interest in Android among backers of China's Loongson chips, which also go by the name Godson.

Lemote already offers a demo version of Android that users can download for the YeeLoong8089 netbook, a mini-laptop with an 8.9 inch screen. The company is now working on an optimized version of the operating system that it hopes to release for the same netbook soon.

Google said in January that it planned to stop censoring results on its China-based search engine, a move that would defy Chinese regulations and that raised concerns about potential harm to Android's reception in China. A company spokesman says Google's row with the government has had no effect on Lemote's work with Android since the OS is open-source software.

Lemote, however, declined to comment whether it will start selling its netbook with Android pre-loaded, and on any other plans to use the software.

Lemote was founded in 2006 with backing from investors including a branch of the state-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences, which developed the Loongson chip line. The CPU line includes low-end chips as well as high-end chips planned to be used in a Chinese supercomputer.