Zhaoxin

Zhaoxin (Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co., Ltd.[1] Chinese: 兆芯; pinyin: Zhàoxīn) 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 million core.[note 1] The processors are created mainly for the Chinese market: the venture is an attempt to reduce the Chinese dependence on foreign technology.[4][5]

Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded2013 (2013)
Headquarters
Shanghai
,
China
Area served
China
ProductsCentral processing units
Microprocessors
Websiteen.zhaoxin.com/solution.aspx?id=3

Architecture

The architecture of the initial 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 (HLMC) .[1][8] The ZX-C is based on the VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4.[8] Zhaoxin terms the architecture "Zhangjiang", however it is thought the basis is the VIA Isaiah 2 architecture.[7] Like the VIA processors they were based on, early ZX processors are BGA (FCBGA and HFCBGA) chips sold pre-soldered onto a motherboard.

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] Zhaoxin calls the ZX-D architecture "Wudaokou" and is a complete re-design of the VIA Isaiah. This is a departure from earlier microarchitectures such as ZhangJiang which were a lightly modified version of VIA Technologies (Centaur) architecture. WuDaoKou is a new and complete SoC design.[9][7] 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-D series also has integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) based on S3 Graphics technology (previously owned by VIA).[1][10][11]

The former ZX naming was dropped around 2018, for the KX ("KaiXian") designation for desktop processors, and KH ("KaisHeng") designation for server processors.

The KX-6000 (formerly ZX-E) system on a chip was demonstrated to press in September 2018.[10] The architecture, an evolution of the ZX-D architecture, has been named "Lujiazui".[9] In June 2019 the KX-6000 was reported to be built on a 16 nm TSMC process.[12] The chip has a DirectX 11.1 compatible iGPU.[10][11]

Discrete GPU

In 2020 Zhaoxin announced it was planning to release a dedicated graphics cards.[11]

Summary of architecture
FamilyMicroarchitecture codenameYear of introductionProcessCoresMaximum speedFeaturesNotes
ZX-A[3][6]VIA Isaiah2014[1]40 nmBased on the VIA Nano X2 C4350AL[1]
ZX-B[3][6]VIA Isaiah40 nmIdentical to ZX-A[1][8]
ZX-C[3]Zhangjiang2015[1]28 nm42.0 GHz
 Based on the VIA QuadCore-E & Eden X4
ZX-C+[3]Zhangiang201628 nm4/82.0 GHzAVX2, AES-NI[13]35W[14]
ZX-D / KX-5000[3][15] / KH-20k[14]Wudaokou201728 nm[16]4/8[16]2.0 GHz
 Manufactured by TSMC
ZX-E / KX-6000[17] / KH-30k[14][11]Lujiazui201916 nm[10][11]8 (up to)[10]3 GHz (up to)[10]
ZX-F / KX-7000[2] / KH-40k[14]2021 (planned)[20]7 nm (TBD)[14]
FamilyCodenameYear of introductionProcessCoresMaximum speedFeaturesNotes

Uses

Zhaoxin processors have mainly been used for Chinese laptops.[12]

Performance

The Zhaoxin ZX-C+ 4701 CPU was reviewed in 2020, and showed significantly worse performance against older Intel (i5 2500K) and AMD (Athlon 3000G) processors.[21] The ZX-D is noted to have roughly the performance of the Intel Silvermont (Avoton) processors.[7]

The ZX-E / KX-6000 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 (namely the Core i5-7400).[10][12][11] The 8-core ZX-E U6780A was reviewed by Linus Tech Tips in August 2020.[22] The review processor was benchmarked to be slightly slower than a 3rd generation Intel i5 quad-core processor using Cinebench.[22] Gaming performance was noted to be poor, whilst the machine itself was noted to be expensive for its performance by 2020 standards.[22] Tom's Hardware also reviewed the U6780A and reported poor gaming performance in 2020.[9]

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

See also

References
  1. "Talk Of VIA Getting Back Into The x86 CPU Space With Zhaoxin". Phoronix. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  2. 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. 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. "KaiXian (ZX/KX) - Zhaoxin". WikiChip. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  7. Schor, David (21 January 2018). "Zhaoxin launches their highest-performance Chinese x86 chips". WikiChip. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  8. "What's going on with VIA/Zhaoxin and x86 processors?". Reddit. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  9. Alcorn, Paul (10 April 2020). "Zhaoxin KaiXian x86 CPU Tested: The Rise of China's Chips". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  10. Shilov, Anton (24 September 2018). "Zhaoxin Displays x86-Compatible KaiXian KX-6000: 8 Cores, 3 GHz, 16 nm FinFET". Anandtech. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  11. Tyson, Mark (10 July 2020). "Chinese CPU maker Zhaoxin to launch a dGPU this year". HEXUS. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  12. Connatser, Matthew (20 June 2019). "Chinese-Produced Zhaoxin KX-6000 CPUs Purportedly Match Intel's Core i5-7400". Tom's Hardware. Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  13. "CPUID Dump, ZX-C+ C4580". instlatx64.
  14. "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
  15. "VIA Technologies Subsidiary Zhaoxin Announces New x86-64 CPUs - ExtremeTech". www.extremetech.com.
  16. "Via joint venture reveals KX-5000 x86 SoCs for Chinese PCs". January 2, 2018.
  17. "Zhaoxin to roll out 16nm CPU in 2018". digitimes.com.
  18. "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
  19. "x86, x64 Instruction Latency, Memory Latency and CPUID dumps (instlatx64)". users.atw.hu.
  20. December 2019, Zhiye Liu 13. "China-Based Zhaoxin Targets 2021 for 7nm CPUs With PCIe 4.0, DDR5 Support". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  21. ""Trillion Core" Chinese CPU vs. AMD & Intel: ZhaoXin X86 CPU Review ZX-C+ 4701". YouTube. Gamers Nexus. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  22. Sebastian, Linus. "A Chinese Intel competitor? - 16 August 2020". YouTube. Linus Tech Tips. Retrieved 17 August 2020.

Notes
  1. In China 兆 can mean either short-scale million (1e6) or trillion (1e12). However, for IT-related topics 兆 always means mega/million in Mainland China.
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