Re: Build/Buy (again)
> only remaining question is whether they bought or stole that technology.
According to the article it was bought. Suggest dropping "the Chinese can't do it without stealing our technology" filter when reading.
> The reason that China doesn't have an X86 chip as fast as Intel and AMD
Until the orange gorilla had a strop, they had no compelling reason to establish their own chip industry; a bit like Europe…
Given they are producing (in production quantities and not sample quantities) a mid range 2021 chip (and support chips?), I would suggest the Chinese aren’t far behind Intel and given their access to Huawei HiSilicon I suspect their main limiting factor is going to be getting hold of (or building) the latest generation of fabs, given the sanctions.
Again comparing with Europe, I suspect without US involvement, Europe would struggle to get near a 2021 mid range chip.
I also suspect China’s big problem is software. So currently it would make sense to leverage existing global ecosystems, especially the x86 ecosystem.
Longer-term, would not be surprised if they adopt MIPS RISC-V and build a software industry around that.