The Rise of China’s Domestic CPUs: History, Key Players, and Future Trends

Introduction

CPU is the core of computing devices, responsible for instruction fetch, decode, and execution. Because of high R&D barriers and complex ecosystem construction, it is regarded as the "Everest" of the integrated‑circuit industry.

Globally, Intel and AMD dominate the general‑purpose CPU market (desktop and server). In China, domestic CPUs are in a critical catch‑up phase, with companies such as Feiteng, Kunpeng, Haiguang, Loongson, Zhaoxin, and Shenwei leading the "China Chip" effort.

1. History of Chinese CPUs

The development of Chinese CPUs can be divided into three stages:

Initial stage (1950s‑1970s): Semiconductor technology was listed as a national priority in 1956. Early institutes and factories built germanium and silicon transistors, leading to the first Chinese computers (109 series, 156 series). In 1975, the first million‑operation integrated‑circuit computer (013) was completed, laying a solid foundation for domestic CPU development.

Turning point (1980s‑1990s): The Chinese Academy of Sciences merged several institutes to form the Microelectronics Center, but reduced policy support and market‑driven development limited autonomy.

Acceleration (2000s‑present): Since the 15th Five‑Year Plan, policies such as the Taishan Plan and 863 Plan have spurred a wave of domestic CPU projects. Notable milestones include the 2002 Loongson‑1 tape‑out, the 2006 "Core‑High" project, and the establishment of the National Integrated‑Circuit Industry Fund, which has funded manufacturing and application‑oriented companies.

Today, the domestic CPU industry has achieved scale, with manufacturers classified by instruction‑set architecture:

Complex Instruction Set (CISC) – X86‑based: Haiguang, Zhaoxin.

Reduced Instruction Set (RISC) – ARM, MIPS, Alpha: Kunpeng (ARM), Feiteng (ARM), Loongson (MIPS), Shenwei (Alpha).

2. Feiteng – Leader in PK Ecosystem

Feiteng CPUs were created by a research team at the National University of Defense Technology, starting in 1999. It is the domestic CPU company with the highest state‑ownership ratio and focuses on national strategic projects. Feiteng has experimented with X86, EPIC, SPARC, and ARM instruction sets, ultimately adopting ARM and developing a full‑stack product line covering desktop, server, and embedded markets.

Feiteng follows an open‑partner model, providing chips only and collaborating equally with OEMs, resulting in a rich ecosystem and secure supply chain.

Server CPUs: The FT‑2000+/64 (released 2017) integrates 64 FTC662 cores on a 16 nm process, operating at 2.0‑2.3 GHz, and delivers performance comparable to Intel Xeon E5‑2695 v3.

Desktop CPUs: The FT‑2000/4 (released 2019) integrates four FTC663 cores on a 16 nm process, achieving performance similar to Intel Core i5.

Feiteng also implements a complete security‑trusted architecture, covering cryptographic acceleration, key management, secure boot, trusted execution environment, secure storage, firmware management, anti‑tamper, and hardware‑vulnerability immunity.