China allegedly making its own supercomputer chips to cut dependence on US tech
The new Hygon C86-5G processor offers 128 cores and 512 simultaneous threads, doubling processing power over typical Intel and AMD CPUs.
Supercomputers have been a powerful tool ever since their birth in the 1960s. Today, almost every nation has advanced supercomputing facilities and systems capable of solving the most complex of tasks.
Chinese semiconductor manufacturer Hygon and supercomputer builder Sugon have announced the creation of a vertically integrated computing giant capable of building high-performance systems entirely with domestic technology.
The processor is a result of the stock swap merger between the two companies. This gives China control over both the chip design and supercomputer manufacturing.
The process began in 2016 when Hygon licensed AMD’s first-generation Zen CPU design and x86-64 architecture. This is the most commonly used architecture for processors in computing today.
Hygon used the original license to develop its Dhyana processor series, which gained support from Linux kernel developers and adoption by Chinese tech giants like Tencent.
Meanwhile, Sugon used the Dhyana processor to make a machine that ranked in the Top 500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputing systems.
This partnership proved successful.