China spawns an x86 supercomputing monster, with an AMD connection
- Reference: 1748307651
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/05/27/hygon_sugon_china_x86_supercomputing/
- Source link:
This story starts in 2016 when AMD [1]licensed its first-generation Zen CPU design and the x86-64 architecture it used to a Chinese outfit called Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co - aka “Hygon”. The two companies planned to develop server-grade SoCs for the Chinese market.
In the years since, Hygon used that license to develop a range of modest server CPUs called [2]Dhyana . Linux kernel developers added support for those chips, and– per China’s policy of encouraging use of home-grown products – so did Chinese giants like [3]Tencent .
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The other player in this tale is Sugon, aka Dawning Information Industry Company Limited, a server-and-supercomputer-maker that has used Dhyana silicon, including in a machine that made it into 38th place on the Top 500 list that ranks Earths mightiest computing machines.
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Sugon was Hygon’s largest shareholder and on Monday the two companies announced they will merge by swapping stock.
[7]China's Loongson gets OpenStack boost from Inspur on its MIPS-y silicon
[8]As Alibaba launches server-grade RISC-V CPU, Beijing throws its weight behind ISA
[9]China Telecom's next 150,000 servers will mostly use local processors
[10]China’s homebrew openKylin OS creates a cut for AI PCs
China will therefore emerge with an integrated server-and-CPU-maker capable of producing substantial supercomputers.
And perhaps even extraordinary machines, too, because Chinese media recently [11]reported Hygon is set to release a CPU with 128 cores and capable of running 512 threads.
Intel and AMD long ago delivered simultaneous multithreading (SMT) that runs two threads per core. Rumors have suggested the American chipmakers might consider SMT4 in future, but it hasn’t happened.
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Among enterprise hardware vendors, only IBM still designs its own CPUs and servers to use them (Fujitsu’s heading in that [13]direction too).
However the idea of designing complementary processors and servers is popular among hyperscalers. AWS, Microsoft and Google have all done it, and so have China’s [14]Alibaba and [15]Huawei .
A combined Hygon/Sugon would certainly attract attention from many Chinese buyers.
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The rest of the world may be less enthusiastic, as the USA’s Bureau of Industry and Security added both companies to its Entity List that names outfits suspected of conducting activities contrary to national security and foreign policy.
Such activities may be the point of the merger: China’s government has laid plans to use AI and big data to improve all aspects of society, including its military. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2016/04/22/amd_q1_fy2016_china_jv/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/07/10/amd_china/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/23/tencentos_server_v3_launch/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aDU412alzlvzusCQbemWeAAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aDU412alzlvzusCQbemWeAAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aDU412alzlvzusCQbemWeAAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloudos/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_alibaba_risc_v_c930/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/china_telecom_local_servers/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/11/openkylin_os_aipc_edition/
[11] https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/digi/2025-05-11/doc-ineweqcz2392233.shtml
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aDU412alzlvzusCQbemWeAAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/03/fujitsu_arm_supermicro1/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_alibaba_risc_v_c930/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/08/ces_intel_nvidia_huawei_ibm/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aDU412alzlvzusCQbemWeAAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Interesting
The Advanced Computing System(PreE) - Sugon TC8600, Hygon Dhyana 32C was indeed #38 in Top500, but that was [1]back in 2018 , and it's since slid down to #229 ... Granted it was [2]expected to lead to a [3]two-exaflop machine [4]back then , but that really hasn't panned out as of yet it seems.
And as the Chinese media ("reported" link in TFA) reported that the original Dhyana was based on AMD Zen 1 IP, and then evolved independently to the current C86-5G chip, I have to doubt that it can match the performance and efficency of current AMD Zen 5 chips, and upcoming Zen 6, especially if stuck at SMIC's 7nm node. Plus with AVX-512 being the power hog that it is ...
For HPC, it would likely be better for them to have more 128- or 256-bit vector-matrix units (rather than 512-bits), without SMT, and focus on optimizing scatter-gather memory accesses (over step, stride, gait) ... SMT4+ is more of a database processing thing iiuc (and it sunk SUN).
Overall, the " combined Hygon/Sugon " is an interesting development (imho), but it could be much more so if the PRC were to engage in the kinds of reforms needed to ease the sanctions imposed on it by the international community ...
[1] https://top500.org/system/179593/
[2] https://www.top500.org/news/china-reveals-third-exascale-prototype/
[3] https://www.hpcwire.com/2021/11/24/three-chinese-exascale-systems-detailed-at-sc21-two-operational-and-one-delayed/
[4] https://www.nextplatform.com/2021/09/20/where-chinas-long-road-to-datacenter-compute-independence-leads/
If Nvidia had been allowed to buy ARM there would be at least one company with the vertical integration and financial resources needed to compete internationally with state-supported mega companies.