Russia to Use Chinese Zhaoxin x86 Processors Amidst Restrictions to Replace Intel and AMD Designs

[AleksandarK]

Many companies, including Intel and AMD, have stopped product shipments to Russia amidst the war in Ukraine in the past few months. This has left the Russian state without any new processors from the two prominent x86 designers, thus slowing down the country's technological progress. To overcome this issue, it seems like the solution is embedded in the Chinese Zhaoxin x86 CPUs. According to the latest report from Habr, a motherboard designer called Dannie is embedding Chinese Zhaoxin x86 CPUs into motherboards to provide the motherland with an x86-capable processor. More precisely, the company had designed a BX-Z60A micro-ATX motherboard that embeds Zhaoxin's KaiXian KX-6640MA SoC with eight cores based on LuJiaZui microarchitecture. The SoC is clocked at a frequency range of 2.1-2.7 GHz, carries 4 MB of L2 cache, 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0, and has integrated graphics, all in a 25 Watt TDP.

As far as the motherboard is concerned, it supports two DDR4 memory slots, two PCIe x16 connectors, M.2-2280 and M.2-2230 slots, and three SATA III connectors for storage. For I/O you have USB ports, DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA/D-Sub, GbE, 3.5-mm audio, and additional PS/2 ports. This is a pretty decent selection; however, we don't know the pricing structure. A motherboard with KaiXian KX-6640MA SoC like this is certainly not cheap, so we are left to wonder if this will help Russian users deal with the newly imposed restriction on importing US tech.


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[Aleksandar_038]

Performance of this is on the level of Athlon II X4 This is hardly replacement for anything, for mobile phone performance, let alone proper laptop / desktop PC machine...

 

[yeeeeman]

Performance of this is on the level of Athlon II X4 This is hardly replacement for anything, for mobile phone performance, let alone proper laptop / desktop PC machine...

this isn't about performance, it is about continuing to use the same software, which...works on the chinese cpu.

 

[Crackong]

a 16nm CPU which is 2010 level and still, based on VIA tech and manufactured by TSMC.

 

[Readlight]

China bad, suports agresion.

 

[Jism]

Performance of this is on the level of Athlon II X4 This is hardly replacement for anything, for mobile phone performance, let alone proper laptop / desktop PC machine...

Dont matter. Its not for gaming or anything. You can replace your current X86 hardware with this type of stuff.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

this isn't about performance, it is about continuing to use the same software, which...works on the chinese cpu.

True and it's mostly pirated older software they use, allegedly.

 

[Baum]

"allegedly" means what?

How do you pay for software when you can't?

Ru is done for years to come as this will give echo.. and cuddling with china is dangerous and stupid they want to increase their landsize up north too ..

 

[SL2]

So what's stopping Ru from buying AMD/Intel through China?

 

[windwhirl]

How do you pay for software when you can't?

... Nobody mentioned paying anything.

Piracy is the route they're taking, obviously. IIRC, Russia basically opened the floodgates for everyone to pirate anything.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

"allegedly" means what?

How do you pay for software when you can't?

Ru is done for years to come as this will give echo.. and cuddling with china is dangerous and stupid they want to increase their landsize up north too ..

Allegedly means,I have no proof to show because I can't be arsed digging any up, sorry.

 

[medi01]

a 16nm CPU which is 2010 level and still, based on VIA tech and manufactured by TSMC.

Makes me wonder why TSMC was not included in sanctions.

 

[GerKNG]

So what's stopping Ru from buying AMD/Intel through China?

having a currency that is barely worth more than the paper it's printed on.

 

[SL2]

having a currency that is barely worth more than the paper it's printed on.

But they still export oil to C? And the board in the OP is considered "not cheap"?

I dunno, it seems to me like they're still doing business with each other, no matter how worthless the currency is.

 

[Denver]

China bad, suports agresion.

Of course, they only care about the goal of growth and domination. It doesn't matter if they are going to finance wars or something else, the important thing is to follow the plan over everyone else.

 

[defaultluser]

a 16nm CPU which is 2010 level and still, based on VIA tech and manufactured by TSMC.

Yeah, without a modern vector system, it gets raped in anything compute-heavy.

They will take that VIA cNS processor as their next-gen, but likely will continue liquidating this shit to Russia.

 

[Lesha]

having a currency that is barely worth more than the paper it's printed on.

FYI, ruble is now worth more than before.

Russian Ruble to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart | Xe

RUB to USD currency chart. XE’s free live currency conversion chart for Russian Ruble to US Dollar allows you to pair exchange rate history for up to 10 years.

www.xe.com

 

[windwhirl]

FYI, ruble is now worth more than before.

Russian Ruble to US Dollar Exchange Rate Chart | Xe

RUB to USD currency chart. XE’s free live currency conversion chart for Russian Ruble to US Dollar allows you to pair exchange rate history for up to 10 years.

www.xe.com

That looks to be official exchange rate, which doesn't necessarily mean it's realistic.

Take Argentine Peso

That's official exchange rate. Actual, street level exchange rate is close to double that.

 

[rusTORK]

So what's stopping Ru from buying AMD/Intel through China?

Nothing. Even new Ryzen 7 5800X3D is in stock in China and ready for shipping. Price is a bit high, but like everywhere. Aliexpress even accept Russian MIR cards!

That looks to be official exchange rate, which doesn't necessarily mean it's realistic.

It is realistic. Check https://valuta.bcs-bank.com There i can buy USD or EUR online from my card. I pay 6% forward to fix currency on 3 days and later visit bank to pay rest and get USD\EUR.But i wouldn't do it right now. All i see is consistant USD drop.

Mainly i used it to get USD cheper then in my bank to later transfer USD on USD card and pay via PayPal, but since PayPal no longer work with Russia and i closed all VISA\MasterCard cards i can just pay in RUB on Aliexpress direclty.

 

[lemonadesoda]

I'd be interested to see a benchmark of that, esp. performance per watt per dollar. It might not be such a bad investment for secondary systems given the cost of electricity coming to hit us soon. I've got a racked webserver and a racked firewall that are in need of updating (Atom D525s). I'm all for cheap as chips and as cool as a cucumber.

 

[RedBear]

That's official exchange rate. Actual, street level exchange rate is close to double that.

It looks like it's still not so bad in Russia, according to Bloomberg the rouble is "20% weaker at exchange points and on the black market".

So what's stopping Ru from buying AMD/Intel through China?

And who knows if they're not already doing that? It's something you certainly don't mention aloud, because it would almost certainly result in sanctions against the Chinese entities involved, take for instance the case of the AMD accelerators reportedly assembled in Vietnam and shipped to China, it's not like any of the involved parties said aloud that they were circumventing US sanctions. On the other hand Russia replacing (part of) its x86 needs with a Chinese design is newsworthy from the Russian perspective.

 

[ModEl4]

Yeah, without a modern vector system, it gets raped in anything compute-heavy.

They will take that VIA cNS processor as their next-gen, but likely will continue liquidating this shit to Russia.

I have to read first Tom's Hardware article, but at first glance according to the chart, it seems between jaguar (slightly lower than Bulldozer) and Piledriver IPC, according to Excavator (A10-9700) comparison:

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/4955/zambezi-slide-10.jpg

So around double the PS4 CPU Single thread performance at 2.7GHz?

 

[defaultluser]

I have to read first Tom's Hardware article, but at first glance according to the chart, it seems between jaguar (slightly lower than Bulldozer) and Piledriver IPC, according to Excavator (A10-9700) comparison:

https://images.anandtech.com/doci/4955/zambezi-slide-10.jpg

So around double the PS4 CPU Single thread performance at 2.7GHz?

Well yea, because it's just a Via QuadCore doubled in core-count using an ancient shared bus!

The VIA CNS processor will actually be impressive (but Zhaoxin are still working on getting that one out the door wit all the customization the want still!)

The Last x86 Via Chip: Unreleased Next-Gen Centaur CNS Saved From Trash Bin, Tested

A relic from the past

www.tomshardware.com

Performance isn't amazing, but it's finally faster than Bulldozer

 

[HisDivineOrder]

Imagine trusting China to get you trustworthy hardware from companies mostly owned by the state.

 

[Exilarch]

I don't get it. Why don't they just buy AMD, Intel, whatever directly from the Chinese? China didn't impose any trade sanctions on Russia. If Germany can still buy Russian gas and resell it to Poland, why can't China resell Intel and AMD CPUs to Russia? This whole thing is just weird.