Zhaoxin, in 2021 Chinese 7-nanometer x86 CPU with support for PCIe 4.0 and DDR5

The Chinese CPU maker Zhaoxin – born from a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the municipality of Shanghai – has announced the features of its next generation x86 processors, Kaixian is Kaisheng. China has every intention of creating an independent technological supply chain from Western products (especially from the United States), so much so that the use of foreign hardware and software has been banned in the government since 2023.

Zhaoxin has two main processor lines. KaiXians are designed for the consumer market, while KaiSheng are intended for the server sector. The current KaiXian KX-6000 and KaiSheng KH-30000 series are based on the 16 nanometer manufacturing process, but the Chinese company will introduce new projects in 2021.

KaiXian KX-6000 processors have a maximum of 8 cores and base frequencies up to 3 GHz. Future KX-7000s should adopt a new architecture, but Zhaoxin hasn't revealed the details yet. TSMC should deal with the production of the new line with the production process a 7 nanometers: a big jump compared to 16 nanometers, so as to allow to significantly increase the frequency.

A step forward towards closing the gap with Intel and AMD, provided of course that architecture also has solid foundations. The new CPUs will also have one new integrated GPU compatible with DirectX 12, will support PCIe 4.0 and even DDR5 RAM memories.

According to the Wikichip website, Zhaoxin would have started working on desktop and mobile projects to be carried out with more advanced processes of 7 nanometers. The Chinese company obviously keeps its mouth sewn, but according to various rumors, it is aiming to use TSMC's 5 nanometer process – N5 or N5P -.

As for the area server, the current KH-30000 chips are based as consumer products on the LuJiaZui architecture and the 16 nanometer process. They have up to 8 cores and base clocks up to 2.7 GHz. The KH-40000 series will debut with a new and improved architecture, though it will remain anchored to 16 nanometers. The real news will concern the number of cores, which will quadruple from 8 to 32.

KH-40000 processors should offer dual socket support, therefore it will be possible to combine two of them obtaining 64 cores in the entire system. Unlike the consumer offering, these processors will continue to support DDR4 and PCIe 3.0 RAM.