Sun was born in Shanghai, in March 1968, while his ancestral home in Shou County, Anhui.
He secondary studied at Fanchang County No.1 High School.
He earned the highest marks in his county during the 1985 National College Entrance Examination.
[1] He holds a bachelor's degree from Peking University, and obtained his master's and doctor's degrees from the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences under the direction of Li Guojie (computer scientist).
He has been director of the State Key Laboratory of Computer Architecture since October 2011.