With RISC-V processors

Chinese want to become independent of Western chips

With the open-source RISC-V microarchitecture, China wants to become independent of Western chips.

(Bild: SweetBunFactory)

Due to growing tensions with the USA, the government in Beijing wants to reduce the People's Republic's dependence on Western chip technologies with a new program. Several insiders said on Tuesday that companies are to be encouraged to make greater use of processors based on the "RISC-V" architecture in a guideline that will apply nationwide for the first time.

The paper is being drawn up by the Ministry of Industry together with seven other government agencies. It is expected to be published in the coming weeks.

The authorities in question could not initially be reached for comment on the issue. In response to the Reuters report on the plans, the Chinese semiconductor index recouped its initial losses on Tuesday and closed up 2.7 percent.

The basic technology of "RISC-V" (pronounced "Risk Five") is open source. This means that it can be used and further developed by anyone without license fees. A non-profit foundation in Switzerland is coordinating the global efforts. These processors are used in numerous devices, from smartphones to high-performance computers for artificial intelligence (AI). Originally developed at the University of California at Berkeley, the technology competes with that of chip designer ARM, for which users have to pay license fees.

US exports to the People's Republic restricted
In China, the "RISC-V" architecture has enjoyed great popularity for some time. State-owned companies and research institutes prefer to work with this technology because it is considered geopolitically neutral. The lower costs are attractive for private companies. For this reason, some US parliamentarians called for a ban on cooperation between companies from the USA and China in the further development of this type of chip around a year and a half ago.

The United States has long restricted the export of high technology to the People's Republic in order to slow down its technological and military rise. Nevertheless, Chinese technology companies continue to cause a stir with their high-performance processors.