China’s push for chip independence continues with its first RISC-V server CPU
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/35528933
China is doubling down on the RISC-V architecture.
About that last sentence about software support determining the future of risc-v. It will overtake x86 (eventually) just due to the nature of OSS. At first OS platforms arent as good... Until suddenly they are. Ask Apple. When the iPhone first launched, it was a million times better than Android. And yet now they are totally on par with each other. And Android has the edge in a lot of cases.
Android gets a leg up from being built on a FLOSS base but I don't think it was the community that pushed Android to where it is today. That's taken a lot of money and resources from Google and it's phone partners investing in the slightly more open platform than Apple.
I mean, it's obviously the price that pushed Android to where it is today.
The fact is, you can buy some models of Android phones (new) for under $75. This makes smart phones affordable even in developing countries. That fact has sent the number of smart phones in people's hands through the roof. And honestly, part of what makes them cheap to manufacture is in fact that FLOSS base, allowing any company to develop one.
No, almost all of the UI features we think normal of a smartphone today, were first on a custom ROM.
Same for desktop btw.
Another example would be Home Assistant. Why exactly should my device have to connect to the internet and communicate with a cloud server somewhere that can be shut down only to communicate with my phone back at my house? With Home Assistant, my device communicates locally with my Home Assistant device and my Home Assistant device communicates locally with my phone. No internet required.
Lol
This could be great news. RISC5 could be great for diversity in the processor space. I at will take investment on the scale that only a national investment like China can invest to get it to compete.
Does China have the Fab capability to build these, or do they need foreign production?
They have been making their own x86 knock-offs for a while now, but not at the same scale as the "regular" - i.e. they'd been doing it at 14nm or so, so less efficient.
I don't know if they have better fab process since then, and for how big a scale.
Their x86 fabs are producing a 5 yr old Intel node, and with unknown defect rate. This is about getting down to the modern node size to (eventually) to get competitive with the two major ARM nodes.
Seems like it's specs are still unknown?
Any benchmarks? Seems like it bundles NN acceleration that competes with GPUs, but benchmarks/price matters.
best i got
RIVAI claims that the Lingyu processor’s computational performance rivals that of major international server chips from Intel and AMD.
Fine, they've made a processor, but until I have an idea of how well tested and secure it is, I'm not running anything on it. I don't mean in a "Oh China, scary!" way but just because it's an unknown brand with no track record.
Making something that works most of the time is one thing. Making something bulletproof is another.
...and they're positioning this for servers.
Sorry to inform you, but all of our infrastructure runs on layers of hacks already.
this is so deliciously and disappointingly true. :-/
They've been spending tens of billions a year in their chip industry.
and, honestly, RISC-V is the right place to spend it. RISC has super powers.
What do you mean by that. RISC-V is open source but it doesn't have "superpowers" that I know of?
Yeah, RISC is good.