Chinese Chip Designers Slow Down Processors To Dodge US Sanctions

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Alibaba and start-up Biren Technology are tweaking their most advanced chip designs to reduce processing speeds and avoid US-imposed sanctions aimed at suppressing Chinese computing power. Alibaba, Biren, and other Chinese design houses have spent years and millions of dollars creating the blueprints for advanced processors to power the country's next generation of supercomputers, artificial intelligence algorithms and data centers. These are produced offshore by the world's biggest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. But sanctions announced by Washington last month that cap the processing power of any semiconductor shipped into China without a license have thrown a wrench into their ambitions. Both Alibaba and Biren had already conducted expensive test runs of their latest chips at TSMC when Washington unveiled the controls. The rules have forced the companies to halt further production and make changes to their designs, according to six people briefed on the situation. They mark another blow for Alibaba, the tech group founded by billionaire Jack Ma. Its shares have lost 80 percent of their value since Beijing canceled sister group Ant's initial public offering two years ago. The group's new chip was to be its first graphics processing unit and was close to being unveiled, according to three people close to the matter. The US export controls extend to third-country chip manufacturers because almost all semiconductor fabrication plants use American components or software, meaning the rules may amount to an embargo on all high-end processors entering China. Washington earlier restricted such imports from California chip companies Nvidia and AMD. Meanwhile, China's own domestic chip plants are possibly decades away from producing cutting-edge chips such as those designed by Alibaba and Biren. "Archived versions of Biren's website from before the US imposed sanctions show specifications for its first processor, the BR100, that would give it a transfer rate of 640 GB/s, exceeding the US limits," notes the report. "Now Biren's site shows slower specs for the BR100 of 576GB/s, according to calculations from research group Bernstein." Dylan Patel, chief analyst at semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis, who first noticed Biren's change of specs, said the company was attempting to slow down its processors by disabling part of the chip. "They are not changing the chip design, so it's like saying 'pinky promise we won't re-enable it later on' and it's unclear if the [US] government will accept that," said Patel. Meanwhile, Alibaba's T-Head semiconductor unit is studying how to modify its new 5-nanometer processor designed for AI work. "Changes being contemplated could require another production test run at TSMC, which would mean a months-long delay and could cost $10mn or more," reports the Financial Times.

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