Domestic CPU manufacturers mainly include Huawei, Phytium, Haiguang, Zhaoxin, Loongson, and Shenwei. They have one thing in common, that is, they all adopt the model of technology introduction, absorption and digestion. No one builds a high-rise building completely on the ground.
CPU working model:
instruction set architecture
Instruction Set Architecture (Instruction Set Architecture), also known as instruction set or instruction set system, is a part of computer architecture related to programming, including basic data types, instruction sets, registers, addressing modes, storage systems, interrupts, Exception handling and external I/O. The instruction set architecture consists of a series of opcodes, or operation codes (machine language), and the basic commands executed by a particular processor. Simply put, the instruction set is generally integrated in the lowest hardware abstraction layer of the operating system kernel, which belongs to the interface between hardware and software in the computer, and defines the basic functions of the CPU to the operating system.
Domestic CPU three modes
Autonomy Ranking
Both Shenwei and Loongson have their own instruction set architecture, Huawei and Phytium have ARMV8 instruction set architecture authorization, while Haiguang and Zhaoxin have obtained X86IP-level authorization, so the degree of autonomy is ranked as follows:
Shenwei, Loongson> Phytium, Kunpeng> Haiguang, Zhaoxin
Another open source ISA architecture, RISCV, has developed rapidly in recent years. At present, it has gradually gained a foothold in the field of IOT and MCU, and is preparing to develop high-performance computing fields. Pingtouge, Bitmain, etc. have appeared in China to develop high-performance RISCV processors. If the company can succeed in the future, its autonomy should be able to rank first.
Manufacturer profile:
1. Tianjin Feiteng, based on ARM architecture authorization, is an innovative and reliable main chip manufacturer, with an increasingly rich industrial ecology and a broad market space.
2. Huawei Kunpeng, licensed based on the ARM architecture, provides the strongest computing case support in the market for its excellent performance.
3. Loongson, the earliest independent research and development manufacturer in China, has a high degree of autonomy in the MIPS architecture system.
4. Haiguang, an X86 architecture chip with superior performance, the architecture comes from AMD authorization, and the commercial market has great potential.
5. Shenwei, self-produced the highest alpha architecture chip in Chengdu, the only surviving branch of the alpha architecture, mainly for the military and the supercomputing market.
6. Zhaoxin, domestic X86 is the main shortlisted chip, the architecture authorization comes from Taiwan VIA (VIA), the latter authorization comes from two American X86 chip companies acquired in the early years, Zhaoxin's business mainly covers the Shanghai area, in education, finance, municipal administration High popularity.
Let’s talk about the development status of each family. Huawei and Phytium are both ARM routes. Huawei is very good under the ARM V8 version, but the premise is the V8 version, because the V9 version is not authorized, including important extensions such as the popular AI, and there is no hope for subsequent iterations. The situation of Feiteng is the same, without V9, follow-up will be very difficult. Under the current situation, the ARM route is basically blocked, and the real money in recent years has basically been in vain, which is a pity.
Haiguang and Zhaoxin are X86 routes. The difference is that Zhaoxin’s authorization comes from VIA, but limited authorization. Haiguang’s authorization source is AMD, which is a permanent instruction set authorization and can be freely expanded and iterated. The product performance is very strong, and it is the current six home The only high-end CPU that is also popular in the commercial market.
History of Haiguang authorization:
Established a joint venture with AMD to obtain x86 kernel authorization in disguise. Due to the cross-licensing agreement between Intel and AMD, when AMD establishes a joint venture company, if AMD is a non-controlling shareholder, the joint venture company cannot obtain the X86 authorization. Only when AMD maintains a controlling status, the joint venture company can obtain the X86 authorization. So one of the conditions of the initial joint venture was that AMD control the joint venture. However, if AMD controls the joint venture company, it will inevitably affect the strength of the joint venture company's support from the state, and once foreign capital takes control, its innovative and credible status will be questioned, and many domestic projects will not be able to participate. Therefore, AMD and Haiguang reached a roundabout cooperation plan: first, AMD and Haiguang Information established a joint venture company Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. CPU core (with AMD's existing x86 core license). Then Haiguang and AMD established another joint venture company, Chengdu Integrated Circuit Design Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Haiguang Integrated Circuit"), which is controlled by Haiguang Information, and Haiguang Information holds 70% of the shares. Haiguang IC purchases the IP authorization of Haiguang Microelectronics, develops the CPU based on this, and finally realizes the replica of the IP core sold by ARM. Thus, it not only circumvents Intel's X86 authorization restriction, but also makes Haiguang X86 CPU a product developed by a domestic company, meeting the requirements of innovation and credibility.
Loongson is the imported MIPS, which was the earliest among the domestic CPUs, and now it has developed LoongArch based on MIPS. The latest 3A6000 design is benchmarked against AMD Zen2. Although there are not small ecological problems, but gradually make up, the limelight in the party and government field is strong.
Among the six major CPUs, Shenwei belongs to foreign experts. It first introduced the Alpha architecture, and later developed SW-64. Shenwei is mainly used in special fields such as supercomputing and military industry. The well-known Sunway TaihuLight uses It is Shenwei CPU. Shenwei is currently not commercially available, so ecological problems similar to Godson have not troubled it.
In general, although the six major domestic CPU manufacturers, Huawei, Phytium, Haiguang, Zhaoxin, Loongson, and Shenwei, adopt the same model, their development status also exists due to their different licensing models and routes. There is a big gap.
Beijing Junzheng
Beijing Junzheng has also obtained the MIPS instruction set architecture authorization, and can freely design the micro-architecture based on the MIPS 32-bit processor ISA. The XBUST technology designed by it has excellent performance. Information, it currently has no plans to support MIPS64 development, let alone corresponding products, and does not mention the technical route of 64-bit processors in its listing prospectus, and the whole article talks about 32-bit CPUs. Ingenic's MIPS 32-bit processors are mainly oriented to the consumer electronics market. There are many manufacturers, the market is scattered, the competition is fierce, and the main cost-effectiveness. Although it has the ability to design its own CPU, it is mainly oriented to low-end embedded CPU chips, not other Six such high-performance server desktop-level CPU chips are the main products, which may be the reason why Junzheng is not included in the high-performance CPU design manufacturers.
Xinchuang Industry
Xinchuang industry, that is, information technology application innovation industry. Xinchuang industry is an important part of "new infrastructure". The background of Xinchuang’s industry promotion is that in the past, most of China’s IT underlying standards, architecture, products, and ecology were formulated by foreign IT commercial companies. As a result, there were risks of restricting many underlying technologies, information security, and data storage methods. The global IT ecosystem will evolve from one pole in the past to two poles in the future, and China will gradually establish its own underlying IT infrastructure and standards. The IT industry ecology established based on its own IT infrastructure and standards is the main connotation of Xinchuang industry.
The word Xinchuang comes from the "Information Technology Application Innovation Working Committee". The Work Committee was established on March 4, 2016. It is a non-profit social organization initiated by enterprises and institutions engaged in the research, application and service of key technologies of information technology software and hardware.
Zhaoxin
