The Geekbench findings were widely reported by both Chinese and foreign media outlets focused on computer hardware.
Should the Geekbench findings get confirmed, Powerleader’s Powerstar CPU would mark the latest scandal to tarnish China’s development of indigenous chips, following the infamous Hanxin case in 2006.
A government investigation found that the developer of the Hanxin series of chips, Chen Jin of Shanghai’s prestigious Jiaotong University, had “committed serious falsification and fraud”, the university and state media said at the time.
The Hanxin, or China chip, was initially hailed as the project that would make Shanghai one of the world’s top chip manufacturing centres, when the breakthrough was officially announced in 2003. The project was funded by a special government programme aimed at nurturing major scientific and technological achievements.
The new logo of Intel Corp, which developed the x86 computer architecture, is seen on a smartphone screen on September 2, 2020: Photo: Shutterstock
Powerleader, which has been manufacturing servers and personal computers for industrial users since 1997, had earlier announced in a press conference on May 7 the release of its first-generation Powerstar CPUs.
In a statement at the time, Powerleader said its Powerstar CPUs were developed based on the x86 architecture, and suited for “government, education, energy, industry, finance, healthcare, gaming and retailing” applications.
The company also launched desktop personal computers and workstations equipped with the Powerstar chip. These are manufactured at various production facilities in Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Hebei, Guangxi, Shaanxi and Jiangsu provinces, as well as in Beijing.
Intel’s x86 is a family of complex computer architectures. Most desktop and laptop computers in the global market are based on various iterations of the x86 architecture.
Before its Powerstar chip development initiative, Powerleader had long used Intel processors on its flagship computer products.
The company is owned by Shenzhen Powerleader Investment Holding, which also owns the Hong Kong-listed PowerLeader Science & Technology Group Co.
China has been trying for years to develop its own ICs, but this effort has been restricted by hurdles such as the lack of intellectual property (IP) and locally created instruction set architecture.
As a result Intel’s x86 architecture continues to dominate the computer market, while British chip design firm Arm’s architecture leads in the mobile devices space.
In some cases, Chinese companies buy chip designs from foreign companies. In 2016, cash-strapped chip maker Advanced Micro Devices received Washington’s approval to license the design of its first-generation Zen x86 processors to Chinese chip designer Haiguang, which resulted in the system-on-a-chip called Hygon Dhyana.
Fabless semiconductor company Zhaoxin, which was formed in 2013 as a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the Shanghai municipal government, manufactures x86-compatible desktop and laptop CPUs for the domestic market. Montage Technology’s Jintide CPUs were also developed based on Intel’s proprietary x86 IP cores, with some tweaks to secure data-processing safety.
