Finally, AMD and Intel have some competition. Well, probably not, but this is still worth a look: chipmaker Zhaoxin has rolled out its first consumer-directed CPU according to Anandtech. Zhaoxin is a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Chinese government and has been selling systems to the Chinese government for some time. The Zhaoxin KX-6780A marks the company’s first move into the consumer market.
The Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-6780A is only available in China at the moment and is only available as an embedded processor soldered to its mini-ITX motherboard. The KX-6780A is an 8-core, 64-bit, x86 CPU. It has 8 MB of L2 cache, a dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory controller, and features modern I/O interfaces like PCIe, as well as DirectX 11.1-capable graphics.
Zhaoxin says the chip compares to a 7th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, but that’s also coming straight from the company; take it with a grain of salt. Even if it’s true, it’s going to be true only conditionally. Intel’s 7th-gen Core i5 chips were quad-core, non-Hyper Threaded CPUs, and any comparison between chips is not going to be exactly 1:1 until the chip is in the hand of independent testers.
The CPU is made using TSMC’s 16-nm process and supports modern CPU instructions sets. It can run both Windows and Linux.
It has ports, too
Photo Credit: Anandtech
The board itself has a pretty standard-looking, though unimpressive feature set. You can pump integrated graphics out through HDMI or VGA ports and supports 4K video playback. On the board itself, you’ll find a 24-pin power supply connector and a PCIe slot that provides compatibility with discrete graphics cards. There’s also room for two SO-DIMMs and two M.2 slots. On the back of the board are HDMI and VGA outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and two RJ-45 Ethernet ports. The board accepts power through a DC power port.
The board and its embedded KX-6780A chip are on sale on Taobao for the equivalent of about $620, and a mini-PC is allegedly coming along in March.
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It shows 8 cores 8 threads. Running on 2.7Ghz TDP is 70W, 64bit processor
I like competition, but also I’m totally fine with not having a CPU which is made in close cooperation with the Chinese government. It wouldn’t be my first choice.
Yeah they might cooperate on licensing if it suits them.
From what limited information I’ve been able to dig up, this is apparently based on a VIA design. And it seems that the status of VIA’s x86 license is currently up in the air, so I doubt we’ll ever see any of these for sale outside of China.
Suck it AMD!
We’re canceling Tiger Lake over this thing and NOT Zen [insert number here]!
In before Coronavirus and glue related jokes…..
Yep. And Intel keeps smiling.
This is still x64 based, so licensing is ongoing at this point.
One thing is certain, China isn’t going to just sit there and buy western tech forever.