China’s self-sufficiency drive hits new milestone with powerful RISC-V chips

China’s ambition to cut its reliance on foreign semiconductor technology achieved a notable milestone this week, with the launch of two powerful chips based on the open-source RISC-V architecture.

Xiangshan, a high-performance processor unveiled by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) at the Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing on Thursday, is the latest effort to push the boundaries with RISC-V architecture.

With the central processing unit (CPU) core achieving a score of 16.5 points/GHz under SPEC CPU2006, an industry-standard benchmark, its performance has reached “internationally advanced levels”, according to a report by state-backed Science and Technology Daily on Friday.

The CPU core, which executes instructions for the processor, is based on the RISC-V architecture.

The move followed the recent unveiling of the latest RISC-V-based chip by Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm Damo Academy, signalling a coordinated national push to develop home-grown computing power to counter US export controls.

The XuanTie C950, the latest flagship in Alibaba’s XuanTie RISC-V series, was introduced at the company’s annual ecosystem conference in Shanghai on Tuesday. Designed for high-performance tasks in cloud computing and AI computing, the C950’s CPU core was said to be the most powerful of its kind globally.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

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