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Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

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Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#121
post #118
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copyleft won't help you there either if the license issuer is also the producer of the physical chip: Licenses are regulating what third parties can do with the source, they don't restrict the issuer.

They do actually restrict issuer in most cases. Linus can't just strip Linux of other developers parts because they are tightly interconnected. He could relicense 30 year old version of Linux, but it would be useless

I just have been more precise and say copyright holder instead of issuer. Linus doesn't hold the copyright for most of the Linux source, hence he can't relicense without explicit oks from the other developers.

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#123
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average consumer cost for 1kWh of electricity in the EU is 20¢. A well-used server might consume 500W on average. units '500W * 1 year * 0.20 €/kWh' '€' € 876 I'm sure businesses get a discount, but we haven't paid for cooling yet. This is hardly a rounding error.

Which units is that? Mine does return stuff in Euros but with a fraction.

  GNU Units version 2.19
  with readline, with utf8, locale en_IE
and no customizations.

  units '500W * 1 year * 0.20/kWh' '1'
would also work.

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#124
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you comparing ARM to x86 or Intel chips specifically? Intel could design their own ARM chips…it’s an architecture family with a SUPER wide variety of implementations. Everyone seems to be excited about the newer AMD chips which are x86. ARM is nice for low power, low performance workloads like embedded, phones, and laptops.

Isn't pretty much all modern x86 cpu's ARM at their core anyways, or am i missing something? The big deal about Apple scilicone is how its an all-in-one and obviously having things compiled for arm in the first place helps

> arm at their core

Most modern "CISC" processors internally are composed of RISC-like elements with instruction decoders in front.

ARM is a specific almost-RISC instruction set architecture.

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macs are still a relatively small (but profitable) chunk of the computing world. The ground Intel has lost in desktop and mobile is more than made up for by their utter dominance in server. Intel also has a lot of plays that should bear fruit in holding or retaking ground on consumer compute in the next few years: 1) Arc GPUs. Looks like they will be seriously disruptive. 2) Hedging their process node bets by using T…

Macs are a small market, but Apple definitely sets trends. Once they adopt a technology, people "know" it works and it's safe to switch. If servers can run on cheap ARM hardware that uses less electricity and runs far cooler without much of a performance difference, that's a massive improvement. Electricity savings would more than justify a switch. Apple has shown that it's possible at the desktop/laptop level. Now t…

> Once they adopt a technology, people "know" it works and it's safe to switch.

Not always. Firewire, for example.

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I'm seeing, I think assuming that RISC-V CPUs being blob free and open, just because the ISA is open is illusory at best and wilfully lying at worst.

When you have the complete verilog source code for the CPU core it's pretty hard to hide anything. Following the source code for the C910 core upload 24 hours ago, Olof Kindgren is live-tweeting getting it going in an FPGA using the existing FuseSoC framework. He made significant progress in the first session before going to bed. It would not surprise me if it's working in the next 24 hours.

But how can I be sure the chip I have in my hand is built upon this code and that no blob has been added?

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#127
post #79

As a person learning Chinese, I find it super frustrating that Chinese brand names are only mentioned in Pinyin, and to make it worse, without tones. With tones, it would have been xuántiě, which makes it possible to properly pronounce without extra context. In Chinese characters it's 玄铁 in simplified and 玄鐵 in traditional script. The meaning is "reddish-black iron". I'm curious if it should be taken literally or if…

It's the name of a sword in Jin Yong's novels.

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I'm seeing, I think assuming that RISC-V CPUs being blob free and open, just because the ISA is open is illusory at best and wilfully lying at worst.

I agree that open ISA does not equate to blob free hardware. And many RISC-V designs out there will have royalties, and devices blobs. But the open ISA levels the playing field and allows for upstart hardware designers to make compatible hardware that is royalty and/or blob free.

[deleted]

Re: Alibaba Open Source XuanTie RISC-V Cores, Introduces In-House Armv9 Server Chip

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have the complete verilog source code for the CPU core it's pretty hard to hide anything. Following the source code for the C910 core upload 24 hours ago, Olof Kindgren is live-tweeting getting it going in an FPGA using the existing FuseSoC framework. He made significant progress in the first session before going to bed. It would not surprise me if it's working in the next 24 hours.

But how can I be sure the chip I have in my hand is built upon this code and that no blob has been added?

By (1) purchasing anonymously from retail sources, and

(2) having researchers with anonymous retail samples verify through decapping and inspection. I believe der8auer in Germany does die shots -- it would not be a bad idea to kick start this kind of research for community assurance purposes.

It's difficult to prove there's no hidden logic, but it's also not trivial to hide complex logic needed to introduce covert undetectable vulnerabilities (probably around things the RNG source or crypto).

Also assuming you're a high value target, otherwise this is mostly going too far.

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