中国人民一条“芯”：政府定义CPU架构标准

上月中国官方启动了一项计划，旨在定义一个全国性的处理器架构。如果这个计划获得成功，则任何寻求政府资金支持的项目都可能要求必须采用这种架构，比如电脑与智能手机采购项目。 至少在考虑五种现有的处理器架构，作为上述标准的基础。该计划也可以用于定义自己的指令集(ISA)或扩展现有的指令集。 在3月召开了中国国家指令集架构计划的第一次会议，由工信部官员主持。 来自大约中国20家机构的代表出席了这次会议，包括通讯业巨头华为和中兴通讯，以及来自一些科研机构的代表。 这是近期中国领导人主抓的几项计划之一，旨在建立中国自己的标准和知识产权，摆脱向外国企业支付专利费的局面。中国已经制订了多项标准，涉及从CD/DVD播放器到监控视频系统的多个领域。 以中国为主开发的第三代移动通讯标准TD-SCDMA，是其迄今为止最为突出的成果。虽然这项计划的结果目前来看好坏不一，但得到了市场的大力支持。全球最大的运营商中国移动已开始实际试验4G标准TD-LTE。 中国多年来一直想制订自己的处理器标准，推出了主要基于MIPS内核的龙芯。观察家对于中国最新采取的努力是否能够成功看法不一。 “我的印象是几个月内”这个处理器小组就选定了一种国家标准，MIPS Technologies的业务拓展副总裁Robert Bismuth表示，“我实际上认为这件事一定会发生。”他还指出，“龙芯确实用在了政府部门的系统之中。” 这可能是一厢情愿。据报道，MIPS Technologies营业收入下降，准备出售公司。“中国有几个基于MIPS的内核，但MPS将最终关门并出售其IP和专利，”一名要求匿名的中国企业高管表示。 其所在的中国企业已经获得ARM和PowerPC内核许可。他表示，ARM对于一些中国企业来说过于昂贵，他们想要成本较低的方案。“我们不能只拥有ARM一个选择，因此PowerPC得到了机会。” 这名中国高管表示，获得ARM高端Cortex A9内核的许可至少需要500万美元，这促使至少一个平板电脑项目选择了PowerPC和Linux，而放弃了ARM和安卓。 ARM一名高管对于中国的处理器计划表示怀疑。ARM总裁 Tudor Brown在电子邮件中表示，“我们当然知道这个计划。这不是新闻，该计划已经讨论了很多很多个月。” “我们理解中国拥有自己的ISA的愿望，我们将继续提供合作，并与相关的主要人员讨论，以达成一个出色的解决方案，”Brown表示，“关键问题不是ISA本身，而是ISA周围的生态系统。”他强调了ARM生态系统的规模。 “虽然定义一个ISA是时间相对较短的活动，但建立和布署一个有活力的生态系统则需要较长时间，”Brown补充道。 实际上，ARM不仅在移动系统方面享有主导地位，而且在中国芯片厂商中也有很强的影响力。据《EE Times 》2011年末发表的一份关于中国芯片设计公司的报告，ARM在中国拥有34个以上的许可，而MIPS是20多个。 在电脑领域，英特尔和x86架构主导了所有的系统销售，包括在中国市场。面对这样实力雄厚的巨头，为一种新的PC或移动处理器架构建立生态系统将非常困难。 然而，MIPS的Bismuth表示，中国政府领导人“希望中国与西方处于平等的地位。”。他说，“他们想建立一种通用的软件生态系统，而实现这点的唯一途径就是采用一种通用ISA。” “他们愿意获得一种现有架构的许可，然后摆脱这种架构，他们不是不愿意付钱，”Bismuth表示。 编译：Luffy Liu 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：China Mulls National CPU Architecture Spec，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} China Mulls National CPU Architecture Spec Rick Merritt China government officials kicked off a program last month that aims to define a national processor architecture. If the initiative is successful, the processor could become a requirement for use in any projects seeking government funding such as purchases of computers or smartphones. At least five existing processor architectures are up for consideration as the basis of the standard. The initiative also could be used to define its own instruction set architecture (ISA) or extend an existing one. Officials of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology hosted the first meeting of the so-called China National Instruction Set Architecture initiative in March. Representatives of about 20 China organizations attended the meeting, including communications giants Huawei and ZTE as well as a number of academic groups. The effort is one of several led by China’s leaders in an effort to set its own standards and thus own intellectual property rather than paying for IP from foreign companies. China has already set its own standards in everything from CD/DVD players to surveillance video systems. The China-led TD-SCDMA standard for third-generation cellular systems was its highest profile effort to date. Results of that effort have so far been mixed, but market traction has been strong enough with China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier, that China-led work on a 4G standard, TD-LTE, already in advanced field trials at China Mobile. China has flirted with the idea of its own processor standard for years, especially with its efforts on the Longsoon, or Godson, processor that is roughly based on a MIPS core. Observers were mixed on whether the latest effort will be successful. “I got the impression it’s a matter of months,” before the processor group chooses a national standard, said Robert Bismuth, vice president of business development at MIPS Technologies. “I actually think this will happen,” Bismuth added. “Longsoon is really launching in systems into the government sector.” That could be wishful thinking for the company that is reportedly up for sale at a time of declining revenues. “China has several cores based on MIPS, but MIPS will eventually shut down and sell their IP and patents,” said one China executive who asked not to be named. ARM cores are too expensive for some China electronics companies who want lower cost alternatives, said the China executive who has licensed for ARM and PowerPC cores. “We can’t have just one option of ARM, so PowerPC has an opportunity,” he added. It costs a minimum of $5 million to license ARM’s high-end Cortex A9 core, the executive said. The price tag has driven at least one tablet project to choose PowerPC and Linux over ARM and Android, the China executive said. An ARM executive expressed skepticism about the China processor plan. “We are of course aware of this initiative. It is not new, and has been in discussion for many, many months,” Tudor Brown, president of ARM said in an e-mail exchange. “We understand China’s initial desire to have its own ISA, and we continue to cooperate and discuss with the key people involved to reach a good solution,” Brown said. “A key issue is not the ISA itself, but the ecosystem that surrounds any ISA,” he added, noting the size of ARM’s ecosystem. “While defining an ISA is a relatively short term activity, building and deploying a vibrant ecosystem takes a lot longer,” Brown continued. Indeed, ARM is well entrenched not only in mobile systems where it dominates but also among China’s chip makers. ARM has more than 34 licensees in China while MIPS has more than 20, according to a report on China’s fabless chip designers published by EE Times in late 2011. In the computer sector, Intel and the x86 architecture dominates all system sales, including those in China. Against such established giants, creating an ecosystem for a new PC or mobile processor architecture would be a difficult task. Nevertheless, Chinese government leaders “want China to be on a equal footing with the West,” said Bismuth of MIPS. “They want a common software ecosystem and the only way to get that is with a common ISA,” he said. “They are willing to license an existing architecture and diverge from it--they are not unwilling to pay,” Bismuth added.