Zhaoxin

Zhaoxin (Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co., Ltd.[1] Chinese: 兆芯; pinyin: Zhào xīn) is a fabless semiconductor company, created in 2013 as a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government.[2] The company creates x86 compatible CPUs.[3] The term Zhào xīn means trillion core. The processors are created mainly for the Chinese market: the venture is an attempt to reduce the Chinese dependence on foreign technology.[4][5]

Architecture

The architecture of the ZX family of processors is a continuation of VIA's Centaur Technology x86-64 Isaiah design.[6][1][7] The ZX-A and ZX-B are based on VIA Nano X2 C4350AL.[1][8] The ZX-B is identical to the ZX-A, except that it is manufactured by Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corporation.[1][8] The ZX-C is based on the VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4.[8]

Zhaoxin came to the North American & European technology press' attention with the ZX-D processor, and its plan for future products, in late 2017/early 2018.[2][3] Changes to the ZX-D include the integration of the northbridge like modern x86 designs, as well as additions of Chinese cryptographic functions.[7] The ZX series also has integrated GPU technology from VIA's S3 Graphics.[1][9] The ZX-D is noted to have roughly the performance of the Intel Silvermont (Avoton) processors.

The KX-6000 (formerly ZX-E) system on a chip was demonstrated to press in September 2018.[9] The chip has an integrated DirectX 11.1 compatible GPU.[9] The chip is reported to have a 50% performance increase over the KX-5000, and comparable performance to a 7th generation Intel i5 core processor from 2016.[9]

The aim for the ZX-F series is for performance parity with the 2018 series Ryzen processor.[1][7]

Summary of architecture

FamilyCodenameYear of introductionProcessCoresMaximum speedFeaturesNotes
ZX-A[3][6]2014[1]40nmBased on the VIA Nano X2 C4350AL[1]
ZX-B[3][6]40nmIdentical to ZX-A[1][8]
ZX-C[3]Zhangjiang[note 1]2015[1]28nm42.0GHzAVX
AVX2		Based on the VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4
ZX-C+[3]Zhangiang201628nm4/82.0GHz35W[10]
ZX-D / KX-5000[3][11] / KH-20k[10]Wudaokou[note 2]201728nm[12]4/8[12]2.0GHzdual channel DDR4[10]
PCI Express 3.0
USB 3.1 (Gen 1 and 2)
USB 2.0
SATA 3
System-on-a-chip (SoC)[10]		Manufactured by TSMC
ZX-E / KX-6000[13] / KH-30k[10]Lujiazui[note 3]2018 (planned)16nm[9]8 (up to)[9]3GHz (up to)[9]DDR4[9]
PCIe 3.0[14]
SoC[10][9]
ZX-F / KX-7000[2] / KH-40k[10]2019 (planned)7nm (TBD)[10]DDR5
PCIe 4.0[14]
SoC[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Talk Of VIA Getting Back Into The x86 CPU Space With Zhaoxin". Phoronix. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Chan, Leon (3 January 2018). "Via's Chinese Joint Venture Aims For Competitive Home-Grown X86 SOCs By 2019". Hexus.net. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tyson, Mark (2 January 2018). "VIA and Zhaoxin ZX- family of x86 processors roadmap shared". Hexus.net. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  4. ↑ Clark, Don (21 April 2016). "AMD to License Chip Technology to China Chip Venture". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 April 2018. The VIA/Shanghai Zhaoxin KX-5000 series of x86-compatible CPUs will never be sold outside of China to avoid an Intel lawsuit.","...will use the technology to develop chips for server systems to be sold only in China
  5. ↑ Wu, Yimian (23 May 2018). "China Supports Local Semiconductor Firms By Adding Them To Government Procurement List". China Money Network. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 "KaiXian (ZX/KX) - Zhaoxin". WikiChip. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Schor, David (21 January 2018). "Zhaoxin launches their highest-performance Chinese x86 chips". WikiChip. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "What's going on with VIA/Zhaoxin and x86 processors?". Reddit. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Shilov, Anton (24 September 2018). "Zhaoxin Displays x86-Compatible KaiXian KX-6000: 8 Cores, 3 GHz, 16 nm FinFET". Anandtech. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "兆芯开胜KH-20000新品点亮安全可靠技术和应用研讨会". EETrend. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018. Translated through Google Translate at https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://www.eetrend.com/article/2018-03/100078081.html
  11. ↑ https://www.extremetech.com/computing/261359-via-technologies-subsidiary-zhaoxin-announces-new-line-x86-64-cpus
  12. 1 2 https://techreport.com/news/33018/via-joint-venture-reveals-kx-5000-x86-socs-for-chinese-pcs
  13. ↑ "Zhaoxin to roll out 16nm CPU in 2018". digitimes.com.
  14. 1 2 "兆芯自主CPU路线图公布：将追平同期AMD、支持DDR5". MyDrivers.com. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018. Translated through Google Translate at https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.mydrivers.com%2F1%2F561%2F561579.htm

Notes

  1. ↑ a reference to the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park station of Shanghai
  2. ↑ a reference to the Wudaokou Station of Beijing
  3. ↑ a reference to Lujiazui station of Shanghai
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