863 is a large-scale Chinese hi-tech R&D program of China. It is an umbrella for over 4,500 chinese projects including: * Supercomputering - 10 Million Megaflops and up. * Rice genome; also rice suitable for growing in space; * Drugs preventing early pregnancy, virus based anti-cancer treatment, hepatitis B vaccination - all at clinical trials stage. * Semi-conductor based lighting - presumed to be an extension of semiconductor lasers. * Process improvements for silicon wafer fabrication. * Use of superconducting cable in the national grid * Medical robots perform 607 brain surgery operations (as of end 2004).