4T7
Journeyman
China's new Godson-3 chip is starting to show that Intel could face some problems from behind the bamboo curtain.
Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the chip aims to make China less dependent on the likes of Intel and AMD. While this could hurt sales for both those companies in China, there could be more trouble ahead. The current chip includes 200 new instructions to assist with x86 compatibility and this means that it will run Intel compatible software efficiently enough that most Chinese may not notice the difference.
True the MIPS RISC processor behind the Godson will not be as good as an Intel machine but it means that if someone has to run x86 software on the Chinese machines it can do it. There might be some problems with patents and so far any attempts at x86 compatible processors, such as Cyrix and Transmeta Crusoe processors all failed miserably. However when your business partner is the Chinese government who will insist your product is installed in every school or state run business you have a bit of a head start.
The chip is not that bad either. When it hits the shops in 2009 it will have four cores, and an eight-core version is also planned. If the spec for the later eight-core gets off the ground it will be similar to Intels Havendale and Auburndale processors. It will be a "heterogeneous" processor, with different types of processors on one piece of silicon.
This will make it a good chip to build supercomputers.
Source
Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the chip aims to make China less dependent on the likes of Intel and AMD. While this could hurt sales for both those companies in China, there could be more trouble ahead. The current chip includes 200 new instructions to assist with x86 compatibility and this means that it will run Intel compatible software efficiently enough that most Chinese may not notice the difference.
True the MIPS RISC processor behind the Godson will not be as good as an Intel machine but it means that if someone has to run x86 software on the Chinese machines it can do it. There might be some problems with patents and so far any attempts at x86 compatible processors, such as Cyrix and Transmeta Crusoe processors all failed miserably. However when your business partner is the Chinese government who will insist your product is installed in every school or state run business you have a bit of a head start.
The chip is not that bad either. When it hits the shops in 2009 it will have four cores, and an eight-core version is also planned. If the spec for the later eight-core gets off the ground it will be similar to Intels Havendale and Auburndale processors. It will be a "heterogeneous" processor, with different types of processors on one piece of silicon.
This will make it a good chip to build supercomputers.
Source
