Chinese processors - from development to production

    We continue the series “Designed and Made in China”.

    Everyone has long understood that China is no longer considered a supplier of cheap trash and consumer goods. China is actively developing high-tech industries, investing heavily in scientific research, including basic research, developing astronautics, robotics, etc. etc.

    But before that they had to go a very long way. In this article, I would like to talk about the development of one of the most difficult industries - the production of microprocessors (CPU) in China and its development.



    For a start - a little digression into history.
    After the victory of the Communist Revolution in China, the winners got one big hole. From the proportions of exports, one can judge what kind of hole China was in 1949 (material taken fromthis course work "The policy of import substitution in China in 1949-1978., author - 刘英)



    The table shows not only what is explicit, but rather dominating the superiority of the export of raw materials over the export of high technology products.

    It is not by chance that the time interval of this term paper ends precisely in 1978. It was in December 1978 at the third session of the 11th convocation of the CPC Central Committee that Deng Xiaoping, who went down in history as 改革 开放 (Reform and Openness Policy), was adopted as the main vector. In principle, from this time on, the rapid economic growth of China began. But enough has already been written about this.

    And my post is not about that.

    In March 1986, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China ( 中华人民共和国 科学 技术 программа) adopted the 863 program. You can read more about ithere . In short, the goal of this program was to minimize the dependence of China on imports of high-tech products, including processors. In principle, the program in its importance is on a par with 四大 工程 (Four great projects of our time):

    1) 南水北调 - Turn of the southern rivers to the north (water supply to the arid northern regions with the waters of the Yellow River and Yangtze)
    2) 西电东送 - Electricity of the west - to the east (construction of 20 hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 50 GW in the western water-saturated regions and its transfer to the eastern industrial regions)
    3) 西气东输 - West gas flows to the east (mass development of gas fields in Xinjiang, Gans and gas delivery to the east)
    4 ) 青藏 铁路 - Alpine \ d highway Qinghai - Lhasa.

    But enough is already written about them.

    Anyway, the first significant result of this program was the processor 龙芯 一号 (Dragon Rod-1). The company Lo(Loongson) itself was created in 1986 and before that it was engaged in various near-computer developments, the meaning of which is hidden from the understanding of any person who thinks not in hieroglyphs. So, for example, in 1989 they released a device for a desktop publishing system, which was called 汉 卡 (literally translated - a hieroglyphic card). This is a board for a computer in the memory of which hieroglyphs were contained. But the story of its creation is too curious to tell in brief. In this they had to compete with Lenovo, which issued the first “hieroglyphic map” back in 1985.


    This was the first Lenovo 汉 卡 of 1985.

    So, the processors. At the end of the 20th century, the production of microprocessors was recognized as a priority (here we need a more detailed story about 中国科学院 知识 创新 工程 - the Project of Intellectual Innovations of 1998, but again, this is not the topic). The first processor 龙芯 一号 was released in April 2001, on August 19 it launched Linux for the first time, and on October 10 it passed certification and certification of the PRC Academy of Sciences. Architecture - MIPS32, clock frequency - from 200 to 266 MHz:


    Loongson 1A - the first sign of Chinese processor engineering .

    A large number of modifications of this processor were released (1A, 1B, 1C). 1D was released on March 19, 2014, it is a full-fledged SoC (system on a chip), on the basis of which microcomputers are made and they cost ridiculous money. So, for example, a Loongson 1B-based microcomputer with a SIM card slot (we’ll omit the detailed specifications, they are modest in short) is sold on taobao for 10 yuan (at the current rate - about 100 rubles.


    There are hundreds of such offers on taobao.

    The second generation began to be released in 2003. It was in the process of evolution that there was a transition from 180 Nm of production technology to 90 Nm and a transition to 64-bit architecture. The clock frequency rose to 1.2 GHz. Enthusiasts, patriots and just people began to assemble desktop computers based on these processors. It's funny that even in the Chinese racially faithful Rays operating system, this processor is recognized as 未知 CPU 型号 - an unknown processor model. The review shows that people ran Media Player, samba, OpenOffice, etc. on this processor. The desktop computers and processors of this series themselves are freely sold at more than reasonable prices and, in principle, are already full-fledged desktop computers (I hate the word desktop), fully developed and manufactured in China.



    At about the same time, 中 中 梦兰 (China Research Orchid Dreams “was founded). She began to produce computers under the brand name 逸 珑 (Racing wind), presented on the international market as Lemote . She began to produce desktop computers and laptops under the brand name “100% domestic”. So, one of their first devices of the 8089 series was quite widely distributed in the domestic market, the model 8089D (900Mhz, 1 GB RAM 、 8 GB SSD) was even presented to Stallman. True, these copies are now quite rare, some prices go up to 15,000 yuan, but at one time they were a hit - judge for yourselves, while a similar laptop sold for 2520 yuan (about 12,000 rubles)



    团购 - group purchases - a popular method to get something, then to explore. Deposit your couple hundred yuan and use.

    In September 2009, the third generation of processors was launched. Over time, when the model index reached the letter B (and this happened in April 2014), the processor became six-core, was manufactured using 32 Nm process technology, and had a clock frequency from 1.2 GHz to 1.5 GHz. The latest processor 龙芯 3B1500:

    1) Clock frequency 1.2-1.5 GHz
    2) Caches:
    a) 1 level - 64 Kb
    b) 2 levels - 128 Kb
    c) 3 levels - up to 8 Mb
    3) power consumption - up to 40 W

    About other detailed characteristics can be read on the manufacturer’s website .



    Now the 逸 珑 line of computers includes both desktop computers and laptops, as well as all-in-ones and servers. The product range can be found here . The characteristics, of course, are not impressive, but given that at the beginning of 2015, the Chinese government completely excluded companies such as Cisco, Apple, etc. from the list of government purchases, and the fact that ordering such products is available only by call and by agreement (when I called, they promised me a shipment within 6 months), and the fact that the description in bold type indicates "Preferential use in government and military institutions", you can be sure that the company will grow by leaps and bounds.



    The official website of the company Loongson
    Computer manufacturer Lemote
    The site of enthusiasts and lovers of Loongson

    I apologize in advance for the fact that many topics are described in passing (I can’t cover everything), for the abundance of hieroglyphs (not everything lends itself to an accessible translation) and for possible errors.

    I hope it was interesting.

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