Damo Academy—a research and development wing of Alibaba—launched its debut "server-grade processor" design late last week, in Beijing. According to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) news article, the C930 model is a brand-new addition to the e-commerce platform's XuanTie RISC-V CPU series. Company representatives stated that their latest product is designed as a server-level and high-performance computing (HPC) solution. Going back to March 2024, TechPowerUp and other Western hardware news outlets picked up on Alibaba's teasing of the Xuantie C930 SoC, and a related Xuantie 907 matrix processing unit. Fast-forward to the present day; Damo Academy has disclosed that initial shipments—of finalized C930 units—will be sent out to customers this month.

The newly released open-source RISC-V architecture-based HPC chip is an unknown quantity in terms of technical specifications. Damo Academy reps did not provide any detailed information during last Friday's conference (February 28). SCMP's report noted the R&D division's emphasizing of "its role in advancing RISC-V adoption" within various high-end fields. Apparently, the XuanTie engineering team has: "supported the implementation of more than thirty percent of RISC-V high-performance processors." Upcoming additions will arrive in the form of the C908X for AI acceleration, R908A for automotive processing solutions, and an XL200 model for high-speed interconnection. These XuanTie projects are reportedly still deep in development.