China’s Processor Battle

Here is the deal, China is releasing a 65nm quad and eight core processor on a 65nm fab process. Main feature is its scalability, cores can shut down or frequencies changed depending on what they are doing, as well, its is easily upgradeable to add more cores without major re-designs. However, it is not on a x86 architecture, instead, it just emulates an x86 chip. Intel says that because it is only simulating a x86 chip it will only be 80% as fast as an actual chip. In conclusion, its aimed at lower end markets, as they are pretty well behind every one else right now.

They say they hope to work with the international community to further their development, but I’m not sure how i feel about this anyways. Reason being, there is a difference between something that is developed else-where and then manufactured in China, or equivalent, that something that is designed and made in aforementioned areas. I mean, its still not ideal to have something made in a place without real labor laws and regulations, but when something is also designed there, and that something being as intricate as a processor, all i can see are potential problems.

[ Read More ]