Rebirth: From Computer System to World Richest

Chapter 46 The Dilemma Of Domestic Chips

Operating systems and chips have always been inseparable.

Any chip architecture system has a corresponding operating system that provides software ecological support for it.

In addition to the Winter Alliance firmly dominating the personal computer market, the mobile phone market is also dominated by the AAA Alliance (Android system + Fruit system + AIM chip).

In addition to the above two major combinations, there is also a combination system of risc architecture chip + unix system in the field of servers and high-end hosts. The winter alliance is also gradually encroaching on this field.

The Unix system is owned by Bell Labs in the United States. Before being divided by antitrust laws, Bell Labs was owned by the American giant company att.

In the early days, Unix was licensed for cheap or free of charge, and later the paid license was restored. Linux was also inspired by the influence of Unix, and then it was born.

As the oldest system, Unix and Unix-like systems developed based on its derivatives occupy the vast majority of markets such as workstations, servers, minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers.

Among them, the mad computer system and ios system developed by the fruit company are also Unix-like systems.

The remaining market share is dominated by the open source Linux system, and part of the market share is occupied by the win-server system developed by Microsoft.

Linux is a completely open source operating system, but strictly speaking it should be an open source system kernel. Its developer is a Finnish person. Any individual or organization can modify it on its basis, including commercial applications.

At present, most self-developed systems developed by individuals, enterprises, institutions, etc. around the world are mostly developed on the Linux kernel.

Gu Ge's Android Desktop system is also developed based on the Linux kernel.

Among the world's most famous computer operating systems, Bell Labs' unix system, Microsoft's win system, and Fruit Company's mad system are all affiliated to the United States. The Linux open source system is the only choice for most independent developers.

Coincidentally, in addition to the four major operating systems mentioned above, there are also four most widely used mainstream chip architectures in the world.

The first is the x86 architecture, which is a complex instruction set. It was developed by Intel in the United States. It is basically no longer authorized to external parties and occupies an absolute dominance in the field of personal computers.

Then there is the aim architecture, which is a simplified instruction set. It was developed by the aim company in Yingguo. With the help of the two major mobile phone systems of Android and Fruit, it has been fully popularized and occupies a dominant position in the field of mobile chips.

The licensing method of this architecture is chargeable, and there are three different levels of licensing models.

The A-series mobile phone chips developed by Fruit Company, the Fire Dragon chip owned by Gaotong, the Wanwan Lianfake chip, the Hunter chip developed by Sansang, and Hayes Semiconductor owned by Warwick all use the AIM architecture!

Aim was originally a Chinese enterprise, but was later acquired by Soft Sound of Neon Country. Not long ago, it was bought from Soft Sound by Invista of the United States, and it is now affiliated with the United States.

At present, aim has complied with the US ban and prohibited Huawei from continuing to purchase its latest version of the chip architecture!

The third is the mips chip architecture, which belongs to the streamlined instruction set and is also affiliated with the United States. The company's operating conditions are getting worse and worse, and the mips architecture has also declined.

At present, Longxin's Longxin uses the mips chip architecture. If Longxin had not persisted, the commercial development of mips would have stopped long ago.

The fourth is the risc-v architecture, which is also a reduced instruction set. Its developer is the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States, which is also affiliated with the United States.

The risc-v architecture itself, like the Linux system kernel, is completely open source, and any individual or organization can modify it on its basis, including commercial applications.

In view of the US ban, several major operating systems and chip architectures are unwilling to open authorization to Longguo, or stop authorization at any time, resulting in bottlenecks that may occur at any time.

One of Longguo's previous solutions was to develop domestic systems based on the Linux kernel and domestic chips using mips and risc-v chip architectures to replace the dilemma of "lack of cores and little soul".

Not only Longguo, but also many other countries, companies, institutions, individuals, etc., have all adopted the solution of Linux system + risc-v chip architecture.

At present, several domestic system manufacturers in China, including the "spare tire" Hongmeng system developed by Huawei, all use the Linux kernel.

In terms of chip architecture, many domestic companies have begun to move towards the risc-v architecture, and Shanghai has also introduced relevant support policies to support the development of risc-v chips.

In the fields of mobile chips, Internet of Things, automotive chips, etc., risc-v has become the best choice to replace the aim architecture.

Honey Badger Semiconductor invested by Alibaba focuses on the RISC-V field and recently released a chip to the market.

Many automotive chip manufacturers have also begun to develop and design chips with risc-v architecture.

But in the field of computer chips, several domestic chip manufacturers in China have their own choices.

There is a manufacturer based on the x86 architecture, but its method of obtaining x86 architecture authorization is relatively complicated and it is "borrowed". It may face the dilemma of Intel withdrawing the authorization at any time.

Moreover, the internal situation of the company is relatively complicated, so it’s okay not to talk about it.

Sunway uses the alpha architecture of the American dec company, and the products currently developed are used in the domestic supercomputer TaihuLight.

Feiteng's development process is relatively chaotic. It adopted the mips architecture in the early stage, then developed the alpha architecture, and finally switched to the aim architecture. Its products are mainly supplied to domestic supercomputers.

Longxin, which targets the PC market, chose the now-faded MIPS chip architecture. It has launched several finished chips before, but they have not been widely promoted.

One is because the performance is not enough, the other is because the output is low and the price is expensive, and the third is because there is no support from the software ecosystem.

Although mips has declined, Longxin's attempt to acquire mips company did not pass the approval of the United States. After persisting for more than ten years, Longxin is also preparing to abandon mips and embark on a road of self-developed chip architecture from scratch.

Especially since the entire Longguo semiconductor industry has set its sights on the rsic-v architecture, if the United States still ignores any opinions and forcibly orders or controls rsic-v and prohibits Longguo from using it, then Longguo’s chip industry will suffer again. Huge setback!

Looking at the well-known domestic chip manufacturers in the country, the best way to truly break through the U.S. sanctions dilemma is to start from scratch!

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