News Alibaba launches RISC-V-based XuanTie C930 server CPU — AI/HPC chip ships this month, more designs to follow

[Admin]

Alibaba announces its new XuanTie C930 HPC CPU, built on RISC-V to boost China's domestic CPU market.

Alibaba launches RISC-V-based XuanTie C930 server CPU — AI/HPC chip ships this month, more designs to follow : Read more

 

[bit_user]

we may never get our hands on the chip to see for ourselves.

Well, Chips & Cheese recently examined the Xuantie C910. Their analysis was supported by benchmarking the LicheePi single-board computer, which utilizes the T-HEAD TH1520.

https://chipsandcheese.com/p/alibabat-heads-xuantie-c910
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So, it's conceivable we'll get some incarnation of the C930 that we can actually benchmark, if not access to a full fledged server, itself.

RISC-V adoption is one of the only paths for Chinese companies to push forward their CPU innovation

Loongson seems to be the other main push, at the moment.

https://chipsandcheese.com/p/can-chinas-loongson-catch-western-designs-probably-not
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Also, don't forget about VIA/Zhaoxin and their x86 activities. Here are some relevant benchmarks (the article also contains benchmarks of Loongson 3A6000):

https://chipsandcheese.com/i/150375045/zhaoxin
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[brucehoult]

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that there is a CHIP shipping next month? I don't believe it.

The C930 is a CORE. When a core ships, that means that the HDL (e.g. verilog, a computer disk file) is made available for licensing to customers and those customers can then start to design a chip using it, which will then be available several years later.

The C910 was similarly announced/shipped in July 2019. It took until July 2023 and January 2024 for machines using the TH1520 and SG2042 chips to be delivered to customers -- the Sipeed Lichee Pi 4A and Milk-V Pioneer respectively.