What’s Driving China’s Home‑grown CPU and Software Boom? Insights from the 2020 NetInfo Report

Report Overview

On April 19, 2021, the China Critical Information Infrastructure Technology Innovation Alliance and the editorial committee of the “Network Information Autonomous Innovation Research Report” hosted the fourth forum and released the 2020 NetInfo Autonomous Innovation Research Report. The report was compiled over six months by more than 30 experts, 100 vendors and 200 practitioners, reviewing the past five years of achievements and challenges in the network information industry.

Structure of the Report

The report is divided into four parts: Foundations, Security, Applications, and Support. The Foundations part lists 11 technology domains, each with several sub‑items.

Key Findings – Foundations

Chip: domestic chips have progressed from “non‑existent” to “usable” and now to “high‑performance”. Development focuses on performance and ecosystem.

Firmware: rapid growth and focus on sustainable development.

Operating System: a leap‑forward in capability, driven by application demand and integration.

Whole‑machine: diversified product forms, still lagging in performance and industry solutions.

Storage: ecosystem largely complete; emphasis on reliability and network upgrades.

Database: significant progress but core technology maturity remains a challenge.

Middleware: entering a fast‑growth phase, facing supply‑ and demand‑side pressures.

IP Network: domestic equipment reaches industry‑leading levels; demand and IP barriers spur innovation.

Office Software: rapid development, with collaboration and device diversity driving new requirements.

Secure Browser: four development stages identified, with four key problems to solve.

Printing Devices: moving from low‑ to high‑end, with security considerations.

CPU Architecture Deep Dive

CPU consists of controller, arithmetic unit, memory and bus. The instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the set of operations; micro‑architecture implements them. Two major ISA families are CISC (complex) and RISC (reduced). CISC examples include Intel and AMD x86; RISC examples include ARM, MIPS, PowerPC.

From a hardware perspective, CISC uses variable‑length instructions, while RISC uses fixed‑length, enabling better parallelism and simpler manufacturing. From a performance view, neither is universally superior; CISC vendors have focused on raw performance, while RISC vendors prioritize power efficiency.

Recent designs increasingly blend the two approaches, e.g., Intel Pentium Pro decodes x86 into fixed‑length micro‑ops.

Domestic CPU Landscape

Since the early 2000s China has launched several processor projects. Six main domestic CPU vendors exist: Loongson (MIPS‑based), Phytium, Kunpeng (ARM‑based), HaiGuang, Zhaoxin (X86‑based), and others.

Three architecture categories:

Loongson (MIPS) and ShenWei (Alpha) – largely autonomous, though Loongson still pays patent fees.

Phytium and Huawei Kunpeng – based on ARM ISA with varying levels of license (core‑level to full‑ISA). Companies with ARM V8 permanent licenses could eventually develop their own ISA.

HaiGuang and Zhaoxin – hold X86 core‑level licenses; creating a fully independent ISA is difficult.

Market share analysis suggests ShenWei remains niche (mainly military and supercomputing), while Phytium, Kunpeng and Loongson dominate the government‑sector market. ARM‑based solutions are gaining traction due to ecosystem advantages.

Conclusions

Domestic CPUs have closed the gap with foreign products, but challenges remain in talent, design tools (EDA), and design methodology. The report predicts continued growth of ARM‑based domestic chips and a gradual shift of market share toward Phytium, Kunpeng and Loongson in the government and public sectors.