China spawns an x86 supercomputing monster, via AMD • The Register
China has spawned a supercomputing contender.
This story starts in 2016 when AMD licensed its first-generation Zen CPU design and the x86-64 architecture it used to a Chinese outfit called Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co – aka “Hygon”. The two companies planned to develop server-grade SoCs for the Chinese market.
In the years since, Hygon used that license to develop a range of modest server CPUs called Dhyana. Linux kernel developers added support for those chips, and– per China’s policy of encouraging use of home-grown products – so did Chinese giants like Tencent</a.
China will therefore emerge with an integrated server-and-CPU-maker capable of producing substantial supercomputers.
And perhaps even extraordinary machines, too, because Chinese media recently reported Hygon is set to release a CPU with 128 cores and capable of running 512 threads.
Intel and AMD long ago delivered simultaneous multithreading (SMT) that runs two threads per core. Rumors have suggested the American chipmakers might consider SMT4 in future, but it hasn’t happened.
Among enterprise hardware vendors, only IBM still designs its own CPUs and servers to use them (Fujitsu’s heading in that direction too).
However the idea of designing complementary processors and servers is popular among hyperscalers. AWS, Microsoft and Google have all done it, and so have China’s Alibaba and Huawei.
A combined Hygon/Sugon would certainly attract attention from many Chinese buyers.
The rest of the world may be less enthusiastic, as the USA’s Bureau of Industry and Security added both companies to its Entity List that names outfits suspected of conducting activities contrary to national security and foreign policy.
Such activities may be the point of the merger: China’s government has laid plans to use AI and big data to improve all aspects of society, including its military. ®
