This chip marks China’s technological independence

It’s tense between China and the United States. The Americans are increasing technological sanctions against China. But China is looking to break this impasse. Cixin Technology, a Chinese company specializing in the design of integrated circuits, has just unveiled its new product: the Cixin P1 SoC. But what makes this chip so special?

Here’s the context to start with: you’re a Chinese computer manufacturer, and suddenly you’re told you can no longer buy the best chips from Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm. That’s what happened to Huawei, and that’s what Chinese companies have been facing since October 2022. But then Cixin Technology comes along with its P1 SoC.

The Cixin P1 is a bit like the Swiss Army knife of AI. CPU, GPU, NPU… everything is there to allow Chinese manufacturers to create their own machines capable of running AI processes without having to buy chips from the Americans.

But make no mistake: just because it’s made in China doesn’t mean it’s cheap. The Cixin P1 has some serious selling points:

• An ARM v9.2-A architecture (the latest one, please)
• A 6nm manufacturing process (not bad at all for a first)
• 12 CPU cores that can clock up to 3.2 GHz
• A 10-core GPU for doing nice calculations
• And the highlight of the show: an NPU capable of delivering 30 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second)

For the uninitiated, TOPS is the unit of measurement that makes AI aficionados vibrate. And with 45 TOPS in total (combining NPU and GPU), the Cixin P1 is in the big leagues. That’s what Qualcomm’s latest PC chip, the Snapdragon X Elite, offers.

ARM, a default choice

Now that we’ve seen the headlines, let’s dig a little deeper. The choice of ARM architecture is not trivial. It’s a bit like choosing a universal cooking recipe that everyone can adapt to their own sauce. Here, Cixin has taken the ARM base and customized it to meet the specific needs of the Chinese market.

The 6nm manufacturing process is also a tour de force. For those unfamiliar with these numbers, the smaller it is, the more powerful and energy-efficient it is. 6nm is already very thin, and it shows that China is catching up at high speed in the semiconductor field. Apple, for example, is moving towards 2nm.

TSMC, a Taiwanese manufacturer, is currently marketing its second generation of 3nm engraving “N3E”, and is preparing a third generation “N3P”, expected in 2025.

But what really makes the difference is the Cixin P1’s flexibility. It can run Windows, Android, or even Kirin OS (Huawei’s latest).

And the cherry on the cake: the Cixin P1 is compatible with LPDDR5-6400 memory and supports PCIe 4.0 16x. For the non-technical, let’s just say that this allows it to communicate very quickly with other components, such as dedicated GPUs or specialized AI chips. Yep, you’ll be able to build a PC with this chip.

Not too fast

However, let’s not sell the bear’s skin before killing it. The Cixin P1 may have impressive specs on paper, but we’ll have to see how it performs in real life. But with the Cixin P1, China shows that it has not said its last word in the global technological battle.