At present, the market of CPU is basically monopolized by two big American companies, the eldest brother Intel and the younger brother AMD, accounting for almost 99% of the market.
At present, Intel and AMD have established a huge ecosystem with X86 instruction set and Microsoft * * *, which is not open to the outside world. In this way, there is not much room for China team to make their own CPU.
0 1 CPU definition
CPU is a kind of chip that people often come into contact with in the semiconductor industry. The most common application is in computers, among which the famous ones are Intel's i9- 1 1980HK and AMD's R7-5800X.
According to the type of CPU, it can be divided into server CPU, home computer CPU, embedded device CPU and mobile phone CPU. The server CPU needs better performance, stability and security, and requires the server to start running for 365 days and work continuously. A server can install multiple CPUs. However, the CPU performance requirements of home computers are relatively low, the capacity is small, and there is no need for continuous work. A computer can only hold one CPU. Embedded devices and mobile phones have low performance requirements for CPU.
According to the architecture of CPU instruction set, CPU can be divided into RISC and CISC.
CISC is a computer with a complex instruction system. As the name implies, CISC is more complex and has a rich instruction system. Specific instructions can complete corresponding functions and handle special tasks.
RISC and reduced instruction set computers focus on frequently used instructions and accomplish uncommon functions by combining instructions, thus achieving the characteristics of simplicity and high efficiency. A RISC cannot handle special tasks. Generally speaking, it is the simplification of common functions and the complexity of uncommon functions.
CISC stands for X86 instruction set, RISC stands for ARM, MIPS, RISC-V, Alpha and SPARS. Besides these two, there are DEC and LoongArch instruction sets independently developed in China.
02 six domestic CPUs
First of all, let's understand what is the ecological environment of CPU. The ecological environment of CPU is the degree to which the system and software support and optimize a CPU after it is launched. For example, the domestic CPU Loongson has no good ecology, and MIPS and LoongArch independently developed cannot support Windows system.
It is difficult to establish an ecological environment independently. If the ecology is not established, there will be no software in the software store (for example, QQ stops at Linux), which is also one of the biggest bottlenecks in the development of domestic CPU.
At present, there are six major CPU design manufacturers in China. Huawei, Tengfei, Zhao Xin, Shenwei, Godson, and Guang Hai (none of them are listed) participated in the design of CPU in different ways.
The story of domestic substitution of CPU has to start from Intel.
With the rapid development of PC, Intel established the X86 architecture, determined a set of general computer instructions, and established a huge ecology on the X86 instruction set together with Microsoft.
At present, the X86 instruction set is not authorized externally, and only Intel and AMD can master it. X86 is the best in the field of PC and server. The ecological environment of other instruction sets is far worse than X86, leaving limited room for the development of China team.
China CPU is divided into three ways.
One is represented by Godson and Shenwei: self-developed instruction set.
Loongson originally adopted MIPS reduced instruction set as general CPU, and its main products are self-controlled consumer categories such as servers, desktops, embedded systems, spacecraft and other fields.
Shenwei originally adopted the Alpha reduced instruction set, which was mainly used in supercomputers and military fields.
Godson and Shenwei are difficult to develop for ecological reasons, especially Godson. If you want to enter the server and desktop market, you must have a good ecology.
Because of the disintegration of MIPS, Longgong began to develop its own instruction set, which was completely independently developed by Longgong and compatible with MIPS ecology. It also began to try to use binary translation to be compatible with ARM and X86 processors. The goal of Dragon Arch is to eliminate the barriers between instruction sets in 2025 and completely solve the compatibility problem.
Because of the acquisition of Alpha, Shenwei began to develop its own instruction set-SW64, which was improved from Alpha. Shenwei Taihu Light Supercomputer manufactured by Shenwei adopts SW64 instruction set, which is known as the "heavy weapon of the country" and has a certain position in the world, ranking first in many indicators in the world.
The second route is represented by Huawei and Tengfei: ARM instruction set authorization.
Except Ba Long, Kirin, Kun Peng, Ba Long and Sheng Tengzhong, the "four kings" of Huawei chips, were all developed under the authorization of ARM instruction set. The most famous of these is "Kirin", which once dominated the mobile phone field until overseas began to sanction Huawei for fear of its rise, so "Kirin" disappeared temporarily.
Tengfei is also one of the CPU manufacturers adopting ARM architecture in China, and its technology is not inferior to that of Qualcomm. At present, the company is blacklisted by the United States, and the chip manufacturing process is also stuck, which may become the second Huawei.
In addition to Huawei and Fit, there are also many domestic manufacturers making chips based on ARM architecture, such as Guizhou Huaxintong and Spreadtrum Communications.
The third route is represented by Megacore and Guang Hai: the joint venture is authorized by X86.
The authorization of the X86 architecture of Megacore comes from VIA's sale of some intellectual property rights related to X86 processor technology and data to Megacore at a price of $65,438+0,654,38+0.8 billion. Megacore is based on X86 ecology and technology, and its performance is generally higher than Godson's, but it is still inferior to Intel.
Guang Hai's X86 architecture license owns AMD's licensed IP through a joint venture with AMD, but it is not a complete technology transfer, but a castrated version, so its performance is not as good as that of AMD Ruilong and Qualcomm Snapdragon.
03 RISC-V
RISC-V is a popular new instruction set in recent years. It is an open source instruction set, which is open to users for free. It is precisely this feature that makes it considered by many experts as an opportunity and possibly the last opportunity for the processor industry in China.
At present, the global market pattern of CPU is to monopolize the PC and server industries with X86 architecture. The ARM architecture monopolizes the mobile device industry, and these two companies cover almost all the CPU market demand.
X86 architecture belongs to "Wintel" (Intel+Microsoft). It is a closed instruction set with no external authorization. Simply put, no one wants to use it, but I can use it myself. ARM architecture belongs to licensed instruction set+licensed design. To put it simply, you need my permission and charge. If you want to design according to it, you have to ask my permission and then charge.
Because of this, RISC-V, as an open instruction set, has been strongly supported by the China team and is regarded as the lifeline.
Is RISC-V that good? We mainly look at two aspects: one is whether its ecology is good or not, and ecology is the biggest factor that determines the development space of instruction set; The other is whether it is completely free, and whether it will get stuck in the future.
1. What is the ecology of RISC-V?
RISC-V has the technical characteristics of high performance, low power consumption, small area and easy expansion. The most important thing is its unique attribute of open source and free, which brings many partners and gradually expands its influence.
From 20 15, RISC-V Foundation was established with 25 members, and now more than 300 units have joined, including Ali, Google, Huawei, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and so on.
A few days ago, a person familiar with the matter said that Intel would acquire SiFive, a heavyweight company in RISC-V field, for $2 billion, which also showed Intel's attitude.
Although Intel is invincible in the field of PC and server based on X86 architecture, mobile devices have always been his heart disease. ARM can't compete in the field of mobile devices, and the emergence of RISC-V gives opportunities.
However, the monopoly position of ARM is still hard to shake. RISC-V may join forces with X86 against ARM in the future, but it is more likely to enter the embedded device market and become the "first brother" in the field of Internet of Things.
Generally speaking, PC, server and mobile devices are difficult to be intervened by RISC-V. On the contrary, some embedded devices, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, sweeping robots and electric cars, have a better development environment.
Second, whether RISC-V is always free.
RISC-V originated from 20 10 and was developed by a research team at the University of California, Berkeley. At that time, they established a new instruction set because the existing instruction set in the market was quite complicated, and the cost and threshold were too high.
"The open source architecture RISC-V will always be free and become the property of mankind. Compared with the high threshold of X86 and ARM architecture, the open source architecture RISC-V will bring a revolution in chip design "-Dr. Krste Asanovic, one of the developers of RISC-V architecture.
This is the original words of RISC-V architecture developers, which shows that the instruction set is completely open source and free. They have performed well so far, and even moved the foundation headquarters out of the United States and moved to Switzerland (a permanent neutral country) to prevent the restrictions of local policies in the United States.
Although RISC-V has done a good job in performance, it still has hidden dangers.
There are many different ways to realize the processor core of RISC-V instruction-level architecture, and the actual modes of micro-architecture are divided into different types, such as open, authorized and closed.
Although developing CPU based on RISC-V does not need to pay the license fee, if it is designed directly with RISC-V kernel, it also needs to pay the license fee. Generally speaking, you don't need to charge me for using it, but you have to design it with my consent, even for a fee (we are free at present, but I have the right to charge some money in the future).
To sum up, at present, X86, ARM and RISC-V are the main instruction sets in the world. As a trendsetter in the new era, RISC-V has been recognized by major manufacturers and has room for development, but it is not enough to shake the position of the other two instruction sets. But it can be expected that when RISC-V grows up, it may still be stuck in the development of CPU in China. We need to keep a sense of hidden dangers and follow the pace of foreigners.
Looking at the domestic manufacturers in the field of computer CPU, Godson focuses on self-research and development of instruction sets belonging to China, which can meet the needs of some party and government fields and security work at present, but it still needs to improve the ecology and performance of CPU when entering the field of home computers; On the server CPU, Shenwei has made small achievements in supercomputing; Huawei also recently reported that it has completed the 40nm beautification work line, and will break through the 20nm work line next year, and Kirin may return; Some unlisted companies such as Lessing Technology and Pingtou Ge are also trying RISC-V field.
All kinds of signs are proving that, although we started 30 years late and the domestic CPU has been breaking through, the road is long and the dawn will come.
The full text is verified by various materials, and if there are any mistakes in the professional field, I hope I can throw a brick to attract jade and discuss them together.
Chip industry chain diagram (written on green background)
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