https://inf.news/en/tech/d7a5d093f8c4a9187824d23e9cfe9f67.html
Big upgrade of domestic x86 CPU!Independent architecture design, Zhaoxin KX-7000/KH-4000 will be released soon
2022-08-16 23:43 HKT

As we all know, by virtue of the strong ecological advantages of x86, Intel and AMD's x86 processors have been the two dominant players in the desktop and server CPU market for many years. Although in recent years, CPUs based on the Arm architecture have also gained in the desktop and server CPU markets. Some achievements, but still far from x86 CPU in the desktop and server market.

Moreover, we can also see that in the case of domestic desktop and server CPUs, the development of Arm architecture has been subject to certain restrictions. For example, the well-known domestic Arm server CPU manufacturers Huawei and Feiteng have been included in the entity list by the United States. Due to the restrictions of the US ban, Huawei's chip design and manufacturing are currently affected, while Feiteng is mainly restricted by the EDA tools required for chip design.

The remaining Shenwei was previously based on the Alpha architecture, but there are also new data showing that Shenwei's 64-bit server CPU is no longer based on the Alpha architecture (but still compatible with the Alpha instruction set), but based on a new architecture designed by itself. The core processor of the world's number one supercomputer "Shenwei Taihu Light" is based on Shenwei's CPU. However, in the last year, Shen Wei has also been included in the list of entities by the United States.

Loongson is currently promoting the autonomous command system architecture LoongArch, which has high autonomous controllability and is compatible with the original MIPS ecology. However, compared to the x86 architecture, the desktop and server application ecology is still relatively weak.

Shanghai Zhaoxin and Tianjin Haiguang respectively chose to obtain x86 architecture authorization through cooperation with CPU manufacturers VIA and AMD that have x86 architecture, and take the x86 CPU route. Their advantage is that they can be well compatible and utilize the existing rich x86 ecology. However, AMD has already lifted its follow-up cooperation with Tianjin Haiguang, and Tianjin Haiguang has also been included in the list of entities by the United States.

From the perspective of the technical route of domestically-made CPUs, there is no absolute difference between advantages and disadvantages, but no matter which route is chosen, they may face pressure from the United States. However, even so, the current domestic CPU manufacturers under various routes are continuing to develop and go against the trend.

At present, Huawei, Feiteng, Shenwei and Loongson have corresponding product layouts in the fields of servers, desktops and embedded CPUs. Among them, Huawei and Feiteng are relatively strong in the domestic server CPU market, Shenwei is mainly performing in the domestic supercomputer market, and Loongson has performed well in domestic embedded and desktop CPUs through years of development. It should be pointed out that both Huawei and Feiteng have obtained Arm's ARMv8 instruction set authorization. Even with Arm's latest ARMv9 instruction set, according to information disclosed by Arm executives, Arm has determined that its Armv9 architecture is not subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations ( EAR). Although the "Alpha architecture" used by Shenwei previously originated from the United States, American manufacturers have long since abandoned the Alpha architecture, and Shenwei has already bought out the license and owns all the design materials for the Alpha architecture. Shenwei has also continued in the development process. Independent innovation will not be restricted by the United States.

Tianjin Haiguang's main products currently target the server and desktop CPU markets. Shanghai Zhaoxin started relatively early, and its product line layout is relatively complete, covering the embedded, desktop and server markets. Although Haiguang has been included in the entity list by the United States, it has been authorized by the Zen1 architecture before, so it can still design chips based on the Zen1 architecture, but it cannot obtain the authorization for AMD's new Zen architecture.

From a market perspective, thanks to the ecological advantages of the x86 architecture, Tianjin Haiguang and Shanghai Zhaoxin have stronger competitive advantages compared to domestic CPUs with other architectures, especially in the original domestic x86 CPU market. It has a greater advantage of localized substitution. Especially Tianjin Haiguang, because it has previously obtained the authorization of AMD's very successful Zen1 architecture, this also makes it relatively easy to launch products that are similar to the AMD desktop version of the Ryzen CPU and the server Xiaolong CPU based on the Zen1 architecture. However, the current dilemma of Tianjin Haiguang is that AMD has terminated its cooperation, coupled with US sanctions, and there is no hope for the acquisition of subsequent new architectures. We can only rely on ourselves to develop related follow-up architectures. However, the level of difficulty depends on the level of difficulty. How open is AMD's Zen1 architecture before?

In contrast, Shanghai Zhaoxin, because it obtained the relatively old x86 CPU architecture derived from VIA, has a lower starting point than Tianjin Haiguang. Fortunately, Shanghai Zhaoxin started relatively early (founded in April 2013). Although the previous ZX series CPUs have been questioned by outsiders as being VIA products wearing vests, recent generations of products are no longer based on VIA. Architecture products. Moreover, Zhaoxin has successfully obtained most of the technology and IP property rights required for the development of x86 chips held by VIA.

At the end of October last year, VIA announced that it would sell part of the x86 chipset product-related technology and information and other IP property rights held by its wholly-owned subsidiaries VIABASE and VIATECH to a joint venture company between VIA and Shanghai SASAC for a price of 138 million US dollars. Shanghai Zhaoxin. In addition, VIABASE, a wholly-owned subsidiary of VIA, will also resell some of the processor-related technologies and materials and other intellectual property rights to Shanghai Zhaoxin for a transaction amount of US$118 million. In November last year, VIA also sold its US x86 R&D team to Intel. At this point, VIA has withdrawn from the development of x86 CPUs, while Shanghai Zhaoxin has obtained the core technology and patents necessary for subsequent x86 CPU development, and has completely independent and controllable capabilities.

According to Zhaoxin's official website, Zhaoxin's latest PC and server products are Kaixian KX-6000 and Kaisheng KH-3000 released in 2019, both based on 16nm process, 4/8 core configuration, and clocked at 3.0GHz. According to relevant test data, the single-core performance of Zhaoxin KX-U6780A is equivalent to 44% of that of i5-7400, and the multi-core performance is about 82%.

According to the previous CPU roadmap announced by Zhaoxin, Shanghai Zhaoxin's new KX-7000 series will adopt a new CPU micro-architecture, which will not only support DDR5, but will also evolve to the PCIe 4.0 bus.

Zhaoxin chief engineer Wang Weilin previously revealed that the performance goal of KX-7000 is to reach AMD's level during the same period. However, AMD will launch the 5nm Zen4 this year, and it is unlikely that the KX-7000 will be able to match the 7nm Zen3.

In addition, at a recent online event, Shanghai Zhaoxin also exposed some information about its new generation of Kaisheng KH-4000 series server CPUs. Its single-core performance will be improved by more than 60% compared with the previous generation, and the multi-core performance will be improved by up to 5 It supports multi-channel interconnection, 128 PCIe Lane, 16 memory channels, has efficient virtualization performance, and uses a pluggable LGA package, which can effectively reduce development and maintenance costs, and can fully support mainstream OS at home and abroad. Zhaoxin said that the specifications and performance of the KH-4000 series server CPU have reached the international mainstream server level.

It is worth mentioning that, previously, Shanghai Zhaoxin announced a detailed roadmap in an official video showing that Zhaoxin will also launch its self-developed GPU discrete graphics card in the future.

According to the above information, the GPU discrete graphics card will be manufactured using TSMC's 28nm mature process and consume about 70W of power.