AMD and Intel are going to compete with ARM and RISC-V architectures. What's next for the industry?

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The two largest players in the x86 processor market and at the same time competitors, AMD and Intel, decided to become allies for a while. Why? To successfully compete with chip manufacturers on ARM and RISC-V architectures. As part of the cooperation program, an advisory group has already been created, which includes, for example, Linus Torvalds. So everything is serious, this is not a joke. Well, let's talk about the details under the cut.

What strange alliances are these?

Experts say that AMD and Intel, while remaining the main competitors in the field of x86 processors, are forced to unite in the face of serious challenges from ARM and RISC-V. We have written about these architectures many times, and there is a reason for this – they are rapidly gaining popularity.

According to Tom's Hardwarethe companies formed an advisory group to discuss the further development of the x86 architecture and find ways to increase its competitiveness against the background of innovations from ARM and RISC-V. It included Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games and developer of Unreal Engine, and Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system. Their participation in the project underscores AMD and Intel's commitment to strengthen their positions through the expertise and experience of leading software developers.

Another potential player in the new advisory group could be the Chinese company Zhaoxin, which has been producing x86 processors since 2013. However, amid the current trade war between the US and China, it is unclear whether Zhaoxin will be invited to the group.

Don't forget about one more possible participant. It's VIA that could likely join the initiative. Via is a Taiwanese company, there are no sanctions on it from Zapadan, so its participation looks quite likely. Especially considering that the US is actively using Taiwanese production facilities for its chips.

Are the threats that serious?

The x86 architecture, which has become the mainstay of the computer industry, especially in the desktop and server sectors, is now facing increasing competition. ARM processors, for example, already dominate the mobile device market, offering higher energy efficiency and performance. Apple's success with its line of M-series ARM chips also makes us think about the future of x86 in the PC and laptop sector.

ARM-based chips, such as those being developed by Qualcomm for laptops and Ampere's products for servers, are increasingly demonstrating superiority in a number of key parameters, including performance and energy efficiency. Former Intel President Rene James, the man behind Ampere, has already proven that ARM can seriously threaten x86's position in the server market. Proof? Well, for example, Ampere's clients include large companies, including Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba and Tencent. Plus OEMs HPE and Supermicro.

For these companies, security, reliability, ease of maintenance of chips, etc. are important. Ampere provides support for ECC, single-key memory encryption, memory tagging, nested virtualization, etc. The processor also has cryptographic and entropy modules, protection against speculative attacks, and protection against ROP/JOP attacks. And Ampere provides all this.

The situation is aggravated by the emergence of the new open architecture RISC-V, which is attracting the attention of many chip manufacturers. RISC-V promises greater flexibility and modularity, making it an attractive alternative to traditional architectures.

RISC-V – ahead of the rest?

In terms of development of this architecture, the company Loongson from China is most actively promoting. In June, it launched new chips, the most powerful processors for the entire line. These are E6000 for servers, 3C6000 for regular PCs and 3D6000 for workstations. As far as one can judge, the 3E6000 processor, the most productive chip in this branch, has great prospects. According to the developers, in terms of the number of cores it is equal to the Intel Xeon Emerald Rapids.

Loongson 3E6000 has 64 cores and 128 threads, but its own architecture, called LoongArch. After the Chinese released a chip based on it, they began to actively develop the entire line. The company is now reaping the fruits of its labors. In order to achieve 64 cores, the company had to make its processor modular, i.e., chiplet.

Everything is quite simple here: the Chinese use autonomous processors as modules. It turns out that one chip combines four basic 16-core 32-thread 3C6000s placed on the same substrate. This is if we talk about server processors.

The same principle applies to workstation chips. In this case, two 3C6000 crystals are used. The company has quite successfully applied this principle to develop the line over several years.

It is worth noting that it also uses the Loongson Coherent Link bus developed in-house. According to the developers, its characteristics are approximately equal to the NVLink bus, which is used in modern video cards and accelerators from Nvidia.

What's the result? Competition between representatives of different architectures is gradually intensifying. And this is great – because companies have to increasingly fight for their place in the Sun. This means developing more productive, energy-efficient and inexpensive solutions. We are waiting for new products!