Chinese technology giant Alibaba said on Tuesday that it has developed a processor that will be used to power servers in its data center.
This development marks the company’s latest progress in the semiconductor field, reflects the trends of other global cloud computing companies, and is related to the Chinese government’s priorities in promoting the country’s chip industry.
The chip was developed by Alibaba’s internal semiconductor department T-Head, based on the 710-UK-based arm architecture, and will not be used for commercial purposes outside of Alibaba.
In terms of market share, Alibaba is the largest cloud computing provider in China and the third largest cloud computing provider in the world. Its competitors in this field have also released their own server chips. Huawei and Amazon rely on their respective Kunpeng and Graviton chips to power their cloud computing infrastructure. Alibaba also stated that it owns a server called Panjiu and that it will provide the public with the source code of the Zyanti series of IP cores based on the RISC-V open source architecture.
Alibaba launched the Zhuanti in 2019. The Chinese government has long called for the industry to invest in the domestic chip industry, which lags behind its global counterparts. Most of the country’s advanced semiconductors rely on foreign companies, and this insecurity emerged when the US sanctions on Huawei weakened the company’s growing smartphone business.
In addition to Alibaba, search giant Baidu, mobile phone maker Xiaomi and several Chinese car and equipment companies have also begun investing in chips.
News Source : The Anand Market
