The MYSTERY Chinese CPU Explained

there are only two options for desktop and laptop CPUs AMD or Intel right wrong or at least sort of wrong you see it wasn't too long ago that in China there were factories churning out x86 compatible CPUs that weren't actually made by either of those companies but hold on a second everyone loves importing Chinese made goods on the cheap so why didn't we see them on store shelves all over the world to get to the bottom of this we called in a few favors so massive shout outs to doctor cut rest from a non tech Wendell from level one techs and drew Prairie for their help unraveling this here's what happened back in 2015 AMD had not released their blockbuster rise in series of processors yet and was struggling financially in a big way they identified a demand for a CPU that was specifically designed for the Chinese market and Chinese government entities but they needed to jump through some hoops in order to take advantage of it so AMD formed a joint venture with a Chinese investment consortium called pathetic and while the joint venture was partially owned by AMD it operated separately to a large extent now of course to build the next 86 CPU you need a lot of expertise and AMD wasn't going to just give away all of its secrets to how it designed its processors so instead AMD provided the joint venture with portions of its intellectual property that allowed it to build processors based on existing AMD core designs and make changes only to things like the processors input/output controls or i/o as well as cryptographic engines possibly due to a desire of the Chinese government for added security the resulting chips were primarily designed for the server market and even though they started turning up months before AMD actually launched any Zen based CPUs under their own brand it turns out that they're quite comparable to first generation epic processors and are even pin-compatible with epic motherboards found in other countries but then hold on a sec if AMD went to the trouble of starting up a joint venture in China does this mean that you might see Chinese CPUs be I'm a real alternative to the market dominance of Intel and AMD proper well right now that doesn't look too likely the performance isn't any better and there aren't any additional features on these Chinese chips that would make them appealing to a customer overseas furthermore all AMD ever really gave the joint venture was the rights to use a core based around the first generation of Zen and nothing beyond that and although AMD earned a good chunk of money from the joint venture it was the broader release of Rison and epic that really helped turn the company's fortunes around in fact the same AMD and Intel chips that you find in other countries can still be bought in China so it isn't as if there's a glaring need for a third source of CPUs and it also appears that the joint venture might be inactive by this point anyway so not only has AMD not given the joint venture any Zen Designs past the first generation the Chinese chip maker is now on the US government entity list meaning that the joint venture can't do business with US companies sell to any other entity on the list or receive technology from American firms so there are a number of these chips out in the wild currently but it is unlikely that they're making any more of course with AMD writing itself with the success of rise in an epoch this isn't exactly a huge loss for them so I wouldn't anticipate tons of x86 chips from other companies any time soon but even though the chips are only a few years old they're already a collector's item if you can somehow find a way to get your hands on one just don't expect it to make your PC any faster it's affordable to fix or upgrade your consoles with I fix its parts and tools even the Nintendo switch they've got all the parts you need to replace and make it run like new fix that drift on your joy con install a new battery even replace your fans just go to ifixit.com slash tech wiki to get everything you need to keep fixing your Nintendo switch and other game consoles because you just rage quit every time to throw it at the ground I mean you could stop doing that you could save money that way too but I always say why not both so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other videos make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any future fast as possible maybe leave us a comment what would you do with one of these Chinese CPUs make like a sweet chain like you like geek swag

Channel: Techquickie

Views: 755,845

Keywords: China, CPU, Processor, Intel, AMD, Gaming, x86, Chinese, Government, Server, Market, Epyc, Hygon, Joint Venture, Rights, Ryzen, Entity List

Id: Sj1auKJeSlw

Length: 4min 29sec (269 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Massive-Gas]

You know things are about to be good when Dr. Ian Cutress gets involved.