The need for efficient and powerful computing systems will never change, since technology drives so many aspects of our life now. Recently, Alibaba Group Holding’s chip design subsidiary, T-Head, launched the Zhenyue 510, a controller integrated circuit (IC) for enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs). This new chip marks a significant step forward in Alibaba’s pursuit of technological independence.
RISC-V lets chip developers to customize their designs
The Zhenyue 510 is based on the RISC-V architecture, an open-standard instruction set architecture that allows chip developers to configure and customize their designs. This is a crucial factor for China as it seeks to reduce its dependence on foreign intellectual property (IP) providers amid an ongoing tech war with the US. In fact, US lawmakers are currently pushing for action on RISC-V on national security grounds, highlighting the importance of this technology standard.
The Zhenyue 510 will initially be deployed in Alibaba Cloud’s data centers, providing support for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI) training, online transactions, and big data analysis. According to Alibaba Cloud, the chip provides a 30% lower latency for input and output operations compared to other ICs on the market. This means that the chip will allow for faster data processing, ultimately leading to improved performance for the end user.
The launch of the Zhenyue 510 follows in the footsteps of other proprietary silicon designs by T-Head, including the Hanguang 800 neural processing unit and the Yitian 710, an Arm-based central processing unit for cloud servers. These chips, along with the Zhenyue 510, are primarily used in-house, highlighting Alibaba’s commitment to developing its own technology solutions.
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(Via)
