Overview of China's Domestic CPU Landscape: History, Key Players, and Technical Highlights

The CPU is the core computing and control component of a computer system, and domestic Chinese CPUs are considered the "Everest" of the integrated circuit industry due to high development barriers and ecosystem challenges.

Chinese CPU development can be divided into three stages: the initial start (1950s‑1970s) with early semiconductor breakthroughs; a turning point (1980s‑1990s) marked by institutional restructuring and reduced policy support; and an acceleration phase from the early 2000s onward, driven by national plans such as the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" and the "National IC Industry Development Outline", leading to the first general‑purpose CPU (Loongson 1) and subsequent high‑performance projects.

Domestic CPUs are categorized by instruction‑set architecture: CISC (X86) represented by HaiGuang and Zhaoxin, and RISC (ARM, MIPS, Alpha) represented by Huawei Kunpeng (ARM), Phytium FeiTeng (ARM), Loongson (MIPS), and ShenWei (Alpha).

FeiTeng (Phytium) originated from the National University of Defense Technology in 1999, evolving through multiple instruction sets (X86, EPIC, SPARC, ARM) and now offering a complete product line covering servers (FT‑2000+/64, 64‑core, 16 nm, 2.0‑2.3 GHz), desktops (FT‑2000/4, 4‑core, 2.6‑3.0 GHz) and a mature ecosystem with over 1,000 partners, full Android compatibility, and a comprehensive security processor architecture.

Kunpeng is Huawei’s flagship ARM‑based processor family, forming a dual‑engine with Ascend (AI) chips. It includes server CPUs (Hi1610/12/16, culminating in Kunpeng 920/920s) and PC CPUs, featuring up to 64 cores, 7 nm process, 2.6 GHz frequency, 8‑channel DDR4, PCIe 4.0, and performance up to 25 % above industry benchmarks while delivering 30 % better energy efficiency.

HaiGuang is a joint venture with AMD, leveraging the Zen 1 architecture to produce the Dhyana series (8‑core desktop, 32‑core server). After achieving profitability in 2019, HaiGuang CPUs have been adopted in large‑scale telecom procurement projects, although future upgrades are limited by AMD’s licensing of only the first‑generation architecture.

Loongson follows a MIPS‑based LoongISA instruction set, progressing through four generations: early low‑performance cores, a second generation with 28 nm, 4‑core CPUs (3A/B3000), and a third generation (3A/B4000) delivering 1.8‑2.0 GHz and performance comparable to AMD’s late‑generation 28 nm products. Roadmaps include 12 nm 4‑core desktop (3A5000) and 16‑core server (3C5000) CPUs slated for 2020.

Zhaoxin is a Shanghai‑based joint venture with VIA, producing X86 CPUs such as the KX‑6000 (16 nm, 3.0 GHz, 8‑core, integrated GPU) and the upcoming KH‑40000 series (32‑core, 7 nm roadmap). While offering strong performance and broad ecosystem compatibility, Zhaoxin faces uncertainty due to the expiration of VIA’s X86 patent license and potential security concerns from legacy code bases.

ShenWei derives from the Alpha architecture, offering a family of high‑performance CPUs for supercomputing (e.g., ShenWei 1610, 410, and upcoming 432/443/3232). The latest designs aim for 60‑80 % of contemporary Intel desktop performance and 60‑70 % of Intel server performance, supported by a dedicated Information Security Industry Alliance and growing OS compatibility (e.g., UnionTech UOS).

In conclusion, the domestic CPU wave in China is accelerating under combined policy, market, and technological pressures, with a growing number of manufacturers achieving breakthroughs in process technology, performance, ecosystem integration, and security, thereby strengthening national self‑reliance in critical computing infrastructure.