News China-Made Zhaoxin CPU Hits Retail Market

[bit_user]

With more software going cross-platform portable every year as re-compilers get increasingly close to native code, it may only be a matter of time before architecture becomes irrelevant to anything beyond performance-critical tasks.

Cool story. We're sure not there, now. Why on earth would they make this thing x86? (hint: it's not because x86 is so great.)

The reason for my concern is that if you control a dominant ISA, it gives you tremendous power over who can compete in that space. ARM basically owns mobile, and controls that entire competitive landscape.

I don't mind different ISAs as long as there are clear technical advantages to them

The issue is whether non-Chinese chip makers have a real chance at competing. A Chinese equivalent of ARM could use licensing structures that heavily disadvantage foreign competitors.

and they come with decent (preferably FOSS) development tool chains.

Even if they do, access to key chip features or performance can still be withheld for unsigned apps or operating systems, in any future incarnation of the ISA. To get your app or OS signed, you might be required to implement certain back doors.

Without 3rd parties having the freedom to implement competing chips that don't have these restrictions, China could achieve digital domination of the world in ways they could never accomplish through the use of conventional military force.

 

[Chung Leong]

Not only that, but I'd imagine China will sell a lot of these & future generations in developing countries. I mean, once the price settles down, of course.

I doubt that will happen. Developing countries are dumping ground for old equipment from the West. It'll be hard to compete with free, especially if performance is no better.

 

[bit_user]

I doubt that will happen. Developing countries are dumping ground for old equipment from the West. It'll be hard to compete with free, especially if performance is no better.

Performance will get better and prices will come down. They're rumored to have a newer version on TSMC 7 nm, already.

People don't really want old, second-hand stuff. If China can build something faster and more reliable than old, used hardware (which shouldn't be too hard), they can charge a little more for it.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Well, maybe server and embedded boards, due to legacy infrastructure, KVM switches and such.

I bought a server board, 5 years ago, that has a PS/2 and a VGA port.

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-ROG-Strix-Gaming-Motherboard/dp/B07HCPLQ2H

Nope. Even higher end gaming boards have a PS/2 port. When I bought my last system I made sure there was none as I have no need for legacy devices. I was looking at some newer setups to potentially upgrade my CPU and found a lot of new high end boards (minus the $400+ boards of course) seem to have them.

Intel's removal of EHCI from their 6th Gen PCH makes PS/2 essential for OS installs that don't natively support the newer XHCI. Having a PS/2 connector may be viewed as an added expense on a lot of motherboards, but I suspect it costs less than the returns a company might see from the average user who can't install Windows 7 or another OS due to lack of immediate peripheral support, and the lack of knowledge to shoe-horn drivers into the installation package.

Except with Windows 7 support dying off and 7 only having about 25% of the total market share, 10 has about 67%, there is no need for it outside of a Linux version that may not support it. However most modern OSes will support the newer standards.

Its like legacy BIOS. Newer Dell systems will no longer allow booting from a hard drive in legacy mode only USB drives but never an OS. UEFI OS booting only. So most modern OSes support UEFI.

 

[bit_user]

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-ROG-Strix-Gaming-Motherboard/dp/B07HCPLQ2H

Nope. Even higher end gaming boards have a PS/2 port.

Okay, thanks for pointing out.

I don't really understand the use case, but maybe they just added it because the I/O shield had room and the chipset still supported it?

 

[Chung Leong]

I don't really understand the use case, but maybe they just added it because the I/O shield had room and the chipset still supported it?

A common use case for PS/2 ports is to let system administrators disable USB in the BIOS and physically seal the ports. Important for situations where data theft by employees is a serious concern, like banks and government. I think that's why Dell's business desktops have them.

 

[bit_user]

A common use case for PS/2 ports is to let system administrators disable USB in the BIOS and physically seal the ports.

Good point, but that still doesn't explain why it's on a gaming board (above).

 

[jimmysmitty]

Okay, thanks for pointing out.

I don't really understand the use case, but maybe they just added it because the I/O shield had room and the chipset still supported it?

I can only assume partially that and legacy support?