Chinese chipmakers have recently become even more active than before. For example, the Sophgo company developed the SG2000 processor and its SG2002 modification. Inside them are cores with RISC-V and ARM architectures. The company positions the chip as an element of IoT systems. Android and Linux are supported. Details – under the cat.

What is this chip and why is it?

The Sophgo company released not one, but two such chips at once, the first – SG2000, already mentioned above, and the second – SG2002. As mentioned, they have a non-standard layout, as they carry both RISC-V and ARM cores. Here they are:

Moreover, there are still cores with the logic of the 8051 microcontroller from Intel, which was released back in 1980. The chips aren’t particularly powerful because they’re designed for the IoT, but they can be used in a variety of devices, including video surveillance, face and car recognition, smart home and manufacturing systems, and more.

Both of them are almost equal in capabilities. Only such parameters as TOPS differ – in SG2000 it is 0.5, and in SG2002 – 1. And also the amount of integrated DRAM memory – 512 MB in SG2000 and 256 MB in SG2002.

Chips are not a concept, but a real technology. They are already being produced, even, there are even boards with these processors in mind, released by SiPeed. These are the SiPeed LicheeRV Nano and the Milk-V Duo 256M, both costing only about $10.

In other words, these are basic chips that are not suitable for building high-performance systems. But these processors are not designed for this, because the same company Sophgo has more powerful solutions, including the Sophgo SG2380 with 16 RISC-V cores, the frequency of which reaches 2.5 GHz. And TOPS here is no longer 1, but immediately 25.

More details? And please!

If we talk about processor cores, RISC-V supports Linux, and ARM traditionally supports both Linux and Android. Here is the full list of SOPHGO SG2000/SG2002 specifications:

• processor cores
  ○ 1x C906 64-bit RISC-V core @ 1 GHz
  ○ 1x C906 64-bit RISC-V core @ 700 MHz
  ○ 1x Arm Cortex-A53 core with a frequency of 1 GHz

• MCU – 8-bit 8051 microcontroller core with 25 to 300 MHz and 6 or 8 KB SRAM (not sure exact RAM capacity as it varies depending on where we look)

• graphics processor – no

• VPU – H.265/H.264 video decoding and encoding (5M at 30 frames per second)

• ISP – 5M @ 30 fps

• NPU – 0.5 TOPS for SG2000 or 1 TOPS for SG2002 (INT8)

• memory (SiP) – 512 MB DRAM for SG2000, 256 MB for SG2002

• storage – SPI NOR flash memory, SPI NAND flash memory, eMMC 5.0 flash memory, 2x SDIO 3.0

• display interface – 2-lane MIPI DSI

• camera interface – 4-lane or 2-lane + 2-lane MIPI CSI

• audio – 16-bit audio codec, 2x I2S/PCM, 1x DMIC

• network – 10M/100M Ethernet MAC PHY

• USB – 1x USB 2.0 DRD

• low-speed peripherals – 5x UART, 4x SPI, 16x PWM, 1x IR, 6x I2C, 6x ADC, up to 128x GPIO

• security – encryption, secure boot, TRNG, electronic fuse

• case – 10 × 10 × 1.3 mm LFBGA with a pitch of 0.65 mm, 205 pins

• temperature range – from 0 to 70 °C

The chip’s memory subsystem is a DDR3 module without a built-in video core. Among other things, there is support for flash memory eMMC standard 5.0. It is usually installed in modern entry-level smartphones and tablets.

The processors can also work with cameras with a resolution of up to 5 megapixels, they have a 16-bit audio codec, and interfaces such as 100-megabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 are supported.

The developers provided a link to GitHub, and the technical documentation is also publicly available. In addition, there is a detailed description in both English and Chinese.

In addition to these two processors, three more are currently in development: Duo S (SG2000) and Duo 256M (SG2002) from Shenzhen MilkV Technology, as well as LicheeRV Nano (SG2002) from SiPeed.

The company plans to sell chips both within China and to the foreign market.

There are other processors in China

For example, the SMIC company plans to start the production of 5-nm processors, in particular Kirin, which are installed in smartphones and not only. The lines are already assembled, so it’s not long until the start. The assembly of the lines itself is implemented at least partially on the basis of equipment that the company managed to buy before the introduction of restrictive measures by the United States. For example, sources say that the SMIC plant has ASML lithography machines purchased last year. And this despite the fact that the Dutch government recently revoked the export license for the Chinese, putting the cooperation of partners with the PRC and ASML on hold.

By the way, experts believe that restrictive measures against China harm the USA first of all. Simply because the Celestial Empire continues to operate, stockpiling equipment. And at the same time, China needs the technologies of the States less and less — the Chinese are developing their own chip architecture, lithography machines, and much more. Well, since China’s domestic market is huge, the development of the electronics manufacturing and development industry is very active.

In general, the production of electronics in the PRC is developing very actively, so soon we will probably see many new products from different companies.