Thursday, January 30th 2020
Zhaoxin KaiXian x86 Processor Now Commercially Available to the DIY Channel
Zhaoxin is a brand that makes multi-core 64-bit x86 processors primarily for use in Chinese state IT infrastructure. It's part of the Chinese Government's ambitious plan to make its IT hardware completely indigenous. Zhaoxin's x86-64 CPU cores are co-developed by licensee VIA, specifically its CenTaur subsidiary that's making NCORE AI-enabled x86 processors. The company's KaiXian KX-6780A processor is now commercially available in China to the DIY market in the form of motherboards with embedded processors.
The KaiXian KX-6780A features an 8-core/8-thread x86-64 CPU clocked up to 2.70 GHz, 8 MB of last-level cache, a dual-channel DDR4-3200 integrated memory controller, a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root-complex, and an iGPU possibly designed by VIA's S3 Graphics division, which supports basic display and DirectX 11.1 readiness. The CPU features modern ISA, with instruction sets that include AVX, AES-NI, SHA-NI, and VT-x comparable virtualization extensions. The chip has been fabricated on TSMC 16 nm FinFET process.
Source:
AnandTech
The KaiXian KX-6780A features an 8-core/8-thread x86-64 CPU clocked up to 2.70 GHz, 8 MB of last-level cache, a dual-channel DDR4-3200 integrated memory controller, a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root-complex, and an iGPU possibly designed by VIA's S3 Graphics division, which supports basic display and DirectX 11.1 readiness. The CPU features modern ISA, with instruction sets that include AVX, AES-NI, SHA-NI, and VT-x comparable virtualization extensions. The chip has been fabricated on TSMC 16 nm FinFET process.
57 Comments on Zhaoxin KaiXian x86 Processor Now Commercially Available to the DIY Channel
It kinda looks, like it is all copper?
This is NOT based on the new "CHA" core that they've announced recently.
In the video we can see cs:go fps, but dunno if it's with dGPU or iGPU.
P.S. Don't forget Hygon :D
Chinese Zen-Based CPU on Sale: Sugon Workstation with 8-Core Hugon Dhyana Processor
The Via wildcard finally in play
browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/search?q=KaiXian
www.passmark.com/search/zoomsearch.php?zoom_query=KaiXian
openbenchmarking.org/s/ZHAOXIN%20KaiXian
In single core mode they are 1.5 times slower than Core i5 2500 from 2011. So, it's not about raw performance, it's about having their own x86 CPU without US mandated back doors (Intel IME, etc) and also we don't know anything about power consumption. They are slow but might be extremely power efficient.
The Chinese have the resources and talent to make these CPUs 30-50% faster if they want. They have enough spying prowess and agreements to have all the blueprints (Intel Sky Lake, AMD Zen 1+, Apple Bionic) in the world :-D And the Chinese CPUs are already much much faster than the last known VIA CPUs.
Also, notice that their fastest CPU, ZHAOXIN KaiXian KX-U6780A, runs at just 2.7GHz which means by increasing its frequency to e.g. 4GHz they can already gain up to 50% of performance. I'm excited! What could be better than a third player in the absolutely stale x86 market?
But I didn't say "identical to a 90s board" ;)Don't get your hopes up, these are probably as inefficient as they are outdated. But they're a first iteration of many to come.
The board does feed only from 12V
And the CPU does hove some fishy external clocking, two additional clocks and done in very vintage manner. It could be the that the internal are faulty...
This is old tech with a few tweaks. No spying, nothing weird going on here. In fact, they want the CHA that Centaur just announced and depending on what VIA agrees on, they might very well get it as well.Third iteration actually.Because it's hard to get a case that fits and looks nice?