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Didn't Huawei have a license to use ARMv9 ?
Apple still stuck with ARMv8 and their SOC is the best in the world, also Apple use emulation software to run x86 software and it seems fine, hardly feel any penalty
Chinese semiconductor industry
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Didn't Huawei have a license to use ARMv9 ?
Apple still stuck with ARMv8 and their SOC is the best in the world, also Apple use emulation software to run x86 software and it seems fine, hardly feel any penalty
Continuing to use the ARM ecosystem in the long run is a problem. Ever since ARM was listed on a US stock exchange they are now increasingly vulnerable to US pressure. But X86 is even worse.
I think China needs to continue investing on RISC-V platforms. We already have RISC-V hardware suitable for IoT and industrial applications. Linux has been ported to it, and so has Android. GCC and LLVM have also been ported. We will soon start to see RISC-V hardware which is competitive in the low end laptop (think Chromebook) and server market. If companies like Phytium and Loongson threw their weight behind RISC-V this would only speed up the transition. It would also help solve the main issue with the current environment where all the Chinese chip efforts are fragmented and require extensive software engineering for each separate architecture.
Loongson could make a RISC-V set of extensions similar to their instructions on LoongArch to emulate ARM and X86. And in the long term you could have emulation of X86 similar to what Apple does with the M1.
China getting ahead of the Western companies in the movement towards RISC-V could enable its industry to surpass the West similar to what happened with EVs.
Microsoft is already working with Qualcomm to get Windows working on ARM. And you could probably do something similar with RISC-V if you wanted to.
I think China needs to continue investing on RISC-V platforms. We already have RISC-V hardware suitable for IoT and industrial applications. Linux has been ported to it, and so has Android. GCC and LLVM have also been ported. We will soon start to see RISC-V hardware which is competitive in the low end laptop (think Chromebook) and server market. If companies like Phytium and Loongson threw their weight behind RISC-V this would only speed up the transition. It would also help solve the main issue with the current environment where all the Chinese chip efforts are fragmented and require extensive software engineering for each separate architecture.
Loongson could make a RISC-V set of extensions similar to their instructions on LoongArch to emulate ARM and X86. And in the long term you could have emulation of X86 similar to what Apple does with the M1.
China getting ahead of the Western companies in the movement towards RISC-V could enable its industry to surpass the West similar to what happened with EVs.
Microsoft is already working with Qualcomm to get Windows working on ARM. And you could probably do something similar with RISC-V if you wanted to.
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YMTC chairman Chen Nanxiang, newly elected head of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, calls for unity amid US sanctions
A clear sign that China is going to double down on localization effort, and also IMHO they see the light at the end of the tunnel, if they make such bold public claims.
It is now clear that YMTC will use the just fundraised 2B$ on local suppliers....maybe even on lithography. Observing recent events, like Huawei bold move with M60, quite low profile new US sanctions in October, and even more lower profile response by Chinese officials (last year they have been quite more vocal in criticize US export bans), and now this sensible policy change at CSIA....I really have a gut feeling 2024 will be the year where full self-sufficiency will be reached, including litho, at least for 28nm...and I'd guess insider people already knows it.
Today I heard some very interesting stuff. I visited one of my relative's home，they have another guest there. That guest was talking about his son，fresh graduate hired by Huawei，work in a fab in Bejing. He said the work load is very high，but the pay is also pretty good.
This is a surprise finding，because I've always thought that Huawei’s fab is located in Shenzhen，never know Huawei operates a fab in Beijing. Could this be Huawei's secret fab that is making the 7nm processor？
This is a surprise finding，because I've always thought that Huawei’s fab is located in Shenzhen，never know Huawei operates a fab in Beijing. Could this be Huawei's secret fab that is making the 7nm processor？
ISA is pretty important, because you need software that are compatible with ISA.
For LoongArch, you see Loongson spending so much time onboarding LA supported software (many are just very standard linux tools and such) and then also writing and trying to improve their own translators so x86 and ARM software can run on LA processors
Doing new ISA is hard, so much time & R&D in terms of improving instruction set so that you can strike a balance bw instruction set complexity vs # of instructions needed to run a task
The main advantages of having their own architecture are that they can tailor the instructions for their use case, and they do not need to pay someone else royalties. But in the case of RISC-V you can extend the architecture and you don't need to pay any royalties. RISC-V is also really similar to MIPS or Loongson so I doubt they would need to do any major modifications to their core designs to make them compatible.
By using RISC-V they would need to spend way less time getting software to be compatible since a lot of the effort has already been done by someone else.
By using RISC-V they would need to spend way less time getting software to be compatible since a lot of the effort has already been done by someone else.
As the U.S. government and its allies are tightening their wafer fab equipment export regulations for Chinese entities, ASML remains optimistic and expects the number of installed DUV tools in the People's Republic to increase in the coming years, reports . Meanwhile, the company admits that most of the deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines it supplies to Chinese customers are designed for 'mature and mid-critical' nodes.
"The total number of ASML deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and metrology machines installed in China is around 1,400," said Shen Bo, ASML's China country manager, in an interview with TMTPost. "By the end of 2025, DUV equipment installment in China is projected to reach 600." ASML does not break down the number of metrology, litho, and inspection systems used by Chinese entities, but we presume that the number of lithography tools is lower than 600 right now.
ASML intensified its shipments to China in Q3 2023. As a result, Chinese companies accounted for 46% of the company's net system sales of €5.308 billion ($5.688 billion) during the quarter, up from 24% in the second quarter. In total, China-based customers procured $2.6 billion worth of wafer fab equipment to the country, including DUV litho tools and metrology systems. Most of them are now aimed at mature and trailing process technologies, such as 28nm, 45nm, 65nm, 90nm, and thicker.
"We are shipping lithography systems for mature and mid-critical nodes to China while, of course, complying with export regulations," Peter Wennink, chief executive of ASML, at the company's earnings call in late October. The head of ASML also admitted that the company did not ship enough tools to its Chinese customers in recent quarters as it tried to fulfill demand from other clients.
"For systems shipping this year to Chinese customers, the majority of the orders were booked in 2022," said Wennink. "The demand fill rate for our Chinese customers over the last two years was significantly less than 50 percent. So, the Chinese customers were, in fact, receiving a much lower number of systems than they ordered. This was because demand for our systems worldwide significantly exceeded supply. With current shifts in demand timing from other customers, we now have the opportunity to fulfill these orders to our Chinese customers."
We are pretty much certain that the orders made by Chinese companies in 2022 included lithography equipment for making 14nm/16nm-class chips and perhaps even more advanced ones. Meanwhile, we do not know what portion of all the lithography tools these advanced systems made up and whether the orders were fulfilled before the Netherlands restricted shipments of such tools to China on September 1.
"We were told by our [Chinese] clients that the orders needed to be delivered as soon as possible," Shen said, as reported by Yicai on Wednesday. "This year has given us a chance to catch a breath and make up for the 'debts' we owed to global and Chinese clients in the past two years."
ASML had a backlog of €35 billion (US$37 billion) from orders made in 2021 and 2022, which included orders from the China market, according to Shen. An ASML representative confirmed the comments in the Yicai report.
ASML can still continue shipments of less advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems to the country, but has said it will no longer be able to ship the Twinscan 2000 series, its high-end immersion DUV machines that can be deployed to produce advanced 7-nanometre and 5-nm chips, to China starting
"The total number of ASML deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and metrology machines installed in China is around 1,400," said Shen Bo, ASML's China country manager, in an interview with TMTPost. "By the end of 2025, DUV equipment installment in China is projected to reach 600." ASML does not break down the number of metrology, litho, and inspection systems used by Chinese entities, but we presume that the number of lithography tools is lower than 600 right now.
ASML intensified its shipments to China in Q3 2023. As a result, Chinese companies accounted for 46% of the company's net system sales of €5.308 billion ($5.688 billion) during the quarter, up from 24% in the second quarter. In total, China-based customers procured $2.6 billion worth of wafer fab equipment to the country, including DUV litho tools and metrology systems. Most of them are now aimed at mature and trailing process technologies, such as 28nm, 45nm, 65nm, 90nm, and thicker.
"We are shipping lithography systems for mature and mid-critical nodes to China while, of course, complying with export regulations," Peter Wennink, chief executive of ASML, at the company's earnings call in late October. The head of ASML also admitted that the company did not ship enough tools to its Chinese customers in recent quarters as it tried to fulfill demand from other clients.
"For systems shipping this year to Chinese customers, the majority of the orders were booked in 2022," said Wennink. "The demand fill rate for our Chinese customers over the last two years was significantly less than 50 percent. So, the Chinese customers were, in fact, receiving a much lower number of systems than they ordered. This was because demand for our systems worldwide significantly exceeded supply. With current shifts in demand timing from other customers, we now have the opportunity to fulfill these orders to our Chinese customers."
We are pretty much certain that the orders made by Chinese companies in 2022 included lithography equipment for making 14nm/16nm-class chips and perhaps even more advanced ones. Meanwhile, we do not know what portion of all the lithography tools these advanced systems made up and whether the orders were fulfilled before the Netherlands restricted shipments of such tools to China on September 1.
"We were told by our [Chinese] clients that the orders needed to be delivered as soon as possible," Shen said, as reported by Yicai on Wednesday. "This year has given us a chance to catch a breath and make up for the 'debts' we owed to global and Chinese clients in the past two years."
ASML had a backlog of €35 billion (US$37 billion) from orders made in 2021 and 2022, which included orders from the China market, according to Shen. An ASML representative confirmed the comments in the Yicai report.
ASML can still continue shipments of less advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems to the country, but has said it will no longer be able to ship the Twinscan 2000 series, its high-end immersion DUV machines that can be deployed to produce advanced 7-nanometre and 5-nm chips, to China starting
Zhongxin Wafer releases "12-inch semiconductor ultra-thick film epitaxial wafer" product
At 9 a.m. on November 1, the opening ceremony of the 12th "Intelligent Lishui" Talent Technology Summit and Talent Technology Empowering Semiconductor Industry Summit Forum was officially held in Lishui. Semiconductor product release session, Hangzhou Zhongxin Wafer Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongxin Wafer") deputy general manager and head of Zhejiang Lizhong Xinwafer Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. Xu Xinhua represented the company at the meeting to launch the 12-inch semiconductor ultra-thick film epitaxial wafer product.
The main applications of the 12-inch epitaxial wafers produced by Zhongxin Wafer include power devices, CIS, and Logic products. Due to the difficulty in processing and controlling 12-inch epitaxial wafers, especially those with film thicknesses exceeding 100 μm, the current localization rate is still relatively low.
Through continuous research and development, Zhongxin Wafer has broken through the key technologies of 12-inch ultra-thick film epitaxial production, has the ability to produce ultra-thick film epitaxial wafers, and has successfully sent samples of FRD applications to promote local substitution in corresponding fields and strive to Change the situation of relying on foreign technology.
Anhui Hechen New Materials Co., Ltd. Blank Mask G6 mass production and G8.5 generation commencement ceremony
On October 28, Anhui Hechen New Materials Co., Ltd.’s Blank Mask G6 mass production and G8.5 generation groundbreaking ceremony was held in He County, Ma’anshan. Anhui Hechen New Materials is committed to the research and development of blank mask materials. The smooth production of this material has reduced dependence on imports, filled the domestic manufacturing gap, accelerated the industrial upgrading of Hexian County, and contributed to the economic development of Hexian County and the construction of a beautiful new Hexian. state contributes.
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