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Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

en.zhaoxin.com

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Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#41

Post by krylon »

djsumdog wrote: post #24
sanxiyn wrote: post #2

This is VIA Technologies. Details here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/via-chinese-x86-soc-2019,36...

Ah, the old VIA chips, which VIA built from the tech they bought from Cyrix. If you're interested in the history of Cyrix and some of the older x86 compatible chips, here's a great video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGAdoMz1c0 Also these Zhaonix's are just 32-bit right? I didn't seen anything on the site about supporting x86_64.

My first PC had a Cyrix CPU, a P166+, running at 133MHz. PC vendors building middle- to low-end PCs liked them, because they were cheaper than Intel, and for most stuff people did with their PCs back then, it offered acceptable performance. Unless you wanted to play Quake, that is. ;-)

But the integer performance of these chips was rather impressive.

The other problem was that Cyrix CPUs used more power than Intel's, so they generated more heat and therefore needed a better cooling system. PC vendors often used cheap low-end fans that were well-suited for Pentiums, but caused many, many crashes due to the system overheating. Once I replaced the fan with a bigger one, the crash-rate dropped by about 90%.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#42

Post by seanmcdirmid »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #22
Coding_Cat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taiwan insist it's Chinese. Its government claims to be the rightful government of the whole of China.

The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China both agree there is a single China which includes Taiwan. They differ over who should govern it.

Not all Taiwanese are pro republic of China. There is a huge split in Taiwan between mainlanders (post 1949) and natives (also descended from the mainland, just pre 1949).

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#43

Post by kogepathic »

klodolph wrote: post #23
pjc50 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly goes a long way towards redirecting money to favoured state companies and building protectionist barriers, yes. Whether it provides any actual security is another matter.

Are you aware of historical events like the 1982 Siberian pipeline explosion? It was allegedly caused by sabotaged software inserted by a Canadian company on behalf of the CIA. Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government.

> Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government.

Why bother hiding the malware in hardware? Most electronics are made in China these days anyway, and only a very, very small fraction of users ever replace or investigate the firmware on their devices.

Much easier and cheaper just to load a compromised firmware during manufacture and snoop that way.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#44

Post by seanmcdirmid »

guan wrote: post #30
candiodari wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, given the territorial claims, yes, kind of that one. It just depends which government you believe as to whether the island of Taiwan is occupied territory, or everything else in China is occupied territory. And these are governments we're talking about, so, needless to say, both sides killed millions to make this happen. Not because those people that got killed worked for the other side or were doing anything a…

It’s worth noting that while the government in Taiwan still officially claims all of China, the government is currently led by a president (Tsai Ing-wen) whose party does not whole-heartedly endorse that position.

Ya, see the difference between the DPP and KMT. Chiang Kai Shek’s legacy is also very dubious amongst many Taiwanese (especially in the DPP), who don’t align with the communists either (and let’s not get into Japan).

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#45

Post by talideon »

gaius wrote: post #4
sanxiyn wrote: post #2

This is VIA Technologies. Details here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/via-chinese-x86-soc-2019,36...

but its chips don’t make it out of the country because they’re largely used in products built for the Chinese government. Very wise of them. Right now the UK needs to make a serious push to make ARM our primary choice, and fabbed here too. This is as strategic as nukes.

Even before Softbank bought them, ARM weren't even a fabless operation: their whole business model is IP cores. There's very little strategic value in that; you'd be as well off founding a semiconductor manufacturer to build RISC V processors.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#46

Post by djhworld »

djsumdog wrote: post #24
sanxiyn wrote: post #2

This is VIA Technologies. Details here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/via-chinese-x86-soc-2019,36...

Ah, the old VIA chips, which VIA built from the tech they bought from Cyrix. If you're interested in the history of Cyrix and some of the older x86 compatible chips, here's a great video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGAdoMz1c0 Also these Zhaonix's are just 32-bit right? I didn't seen anything on the site about supporting x86_64.

My parents bought a Packard Bell PC as the first family computer, back in 1999 or so, that had a Cyrix, 333mhz from what I recall.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#47

Post by jandrese »

itsameta4 wrote: post #28
skykooler wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Atom? As I understood it Atom processors did not use speculative execution.

That was only the case until 2013 or so. Modern Atoms are vulnerable.

And the old Atoms were so slow that few people bothered with them.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#48

Post by pjc50 »

klodolph wrote: post #23
pjc50 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly goes a long way towards redirecting money to favoured state companies and building protectionist barriers, yes. Whether it provides any actual security is another matter.

Are you aware of historical events like the 1982 Siberian pipeline explosion? It was allegedly caused by sabotaged software inserted by a Canadian company on behalf of the CIA. Modern chips are certainly dense enough and have enough layers that you can hide Trojans in them. Buying e.g. routers with Chinese ICs is a credible threat to the US government.

There's a strange little collaboration between BT, GCHQ and Huawei going on at "Adastral Park" (Martlesham Heath). It's all top secret, but the person who told me about it hinted that it wasn't about removing the surveillance backdoors but making sure that GCHQ had access to them.

Re: Zhaoxin's x86 CPUs

#49

Post by jotm »

gaius wrote: post #4
sanxiyn wrote: post #2

This is VIA Technologies. Details here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/via-chinese-x86-soc-2019,36...

but its chips don’t make it out of the country because they’re largely used in products built for the Chinese government. Very wise of them. Right now the UK needs to make a serious push to make ARM our primary choice, and fabbed here too. This is as strategic as nukes.

Drumming up national security for the UK? I guess if you're planning to go to war with the EU... Otherwise it's as useless as Trident.
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