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posted by martyb on Sunday July 08 2018, @12:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the chip-off-the-old...chip? dept.

China Finds Zen: Begins Production Of x86 Processors Based On AMD's IP

Chinese-designed "Dhyana" x86 processors based on AMD's Zen microarchitecture are beginning to surface from Chinese chip producer Hygon. The processors come as the fruit of AMD's x86 IP licensing agreements with its China-based partners and break the decades-long stranglehold on x86 held by the triumvirate of Intel, AMD and VIA Technologies. Details are also emerging that outline how AMD has managed to stay within the boundaries of the x86 licensing agreements but still allow Chinese-controlled interests to design and sell processors based on the Zen design.

AMD's official statements indicate the company does not sell its final chip designs to its China-based partners. Instead, AMD allows them to design their own processors tailored for the Chinese server market. But the China-produced Hygon "Dhyana" processors are so similar to AMD's EPYC processors that Linux kernel developers have listed vendor IDs and family series numbers as the only difference. In fact, Linux maintainers have simply ported over the EPYC support codes to the Dhyana processor and note that they have successfully run the same patches on AMD's EPYC processors, implying there is little to no differentiation between the chips.

The new chips are surfacing against the backdrop of the trade war between the US and China that could escalate quickly, likely reinforcing China's long-held opinion that a lack of native processor production could be a strategic liability. Today's wars are won with chips, and their strategic importance certainly isn't lost on those in the halls of power. In fact, the Obama administration blocked Intel from selling Xeon processors to China in 2015 over concerns the chips were fueling the country's nuclear programs, and subsequent actions by the US have largely prevented China from achieving the technical know-how and equipment to develop its own chips through acquisitions and mergers.

That makes it even more surprising that AMD has managed to establish a franchise that allows Chinese processor vendors to develop and sell x86 processors in spite of US regulations and the licensing restrictions with Intel, but now more information is coming to light about how AMD pulled off the feat.

Related: Intel Launches New Chips in China as US Bans Sales to Supercomputing Centers
Intel Hints at Patent Fight With Microsoft and Qualcomm Over x86 Emulation
Data Centers Consider Intel's Rivals
Tencent Chairman Pledges to Advance China Chip Industry After ZTE "Wake-Up" Call


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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday July 12 2018, @08:27PM (3 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 12 2018, @08:27PM (#706347) Journal

    Haven't seen any end consumer real price competitor to x86 for a desktop/server yet.

    Although in the tablet space, ARM is really demonstrating, I'd say, that x86 is definitely not needed for a widely-accepted computing device.

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  • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Thursday July 12 2018, @11:30PM (2 children)

    by bitstream (6144) on Thursday July 12 2018, @11:30PM (#706402) Journal

    Any tablet that is strong enough to do desktop? and cheap. However connectivity would suffer (USB sucks).

    Then it's the server 19" side. Still no real competitor on both performance, price and availability.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Friday July 13 2018, @07:07PM (1 child)

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 13 2018, @07:07PM (#706741) Journal

      Still no real [desktop/server] competitor on both performance, price and availability.

      I find this (you may or may not care to know) very frustrating.

      I would cheerfully use a (server or desktop) processor that was half (or a quarter) as fast per core as long as it had plenty of cores and my compiles and media encodes finished in about the same amount of time.

      I don't need an x86 for that in theory (free software mostly cheerfully recompiles wherever you need it to), but I am not finding the motherboards that make it true in practice. I'd like to.

      • (Score: 2) by bitstream on Saturday July 14 2018, @05:58PM

        by bitstream (6144) on Saturday July 14 2018, @05:58PM (#707234) Journal

        Do we smell a kickstarter or movement? Economical MIPS/PPC/ARM motherboard for server and desktop?