Russian Electronics: Semiconductor and Processors

kvs wrote:The Elbrus architecture dates back to the VLIW used in a series of those "failed" Soviet
mainframes and is a completely Soviet design.   It is the only VLIW architecture alive and well today.   Intel failed with its EPIC since
it could not handle the software end which is critical.

There is another successful VLIW architecture. The former Philips Trimedia chip line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriMedia_%28mediaprocessor%29

It could decode H.264 video in real-time at 90nm. TM3270 released in 2006. Right now the IP is probably available for peanuts and should get out of patent in 4-5 years.

Putin made some comments on Rostec. Maybe Chemezov is on the way out? "Modest" translates to bad, imo. I would like to see Chemezov out. He is corrupted and not too competent. Both tech conglomerates had wrong people on the top ( Chemezov and Chubais) and it shows.

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/15244269

Putin announced modest results of Rostec digital projects

According to the president, we are talking about the results "including projects for creating fifth-generation networks, developing the production of equipment for the widespread introduction of the Internet of things"
NOVO-OGAREVO, 18 July. /TASS/. Projects for the development of end-to-end digital technologies, for which the state corporation Rostec is responsible, have shown modest results. This was stated by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects on Monday.
“Modest results have been demonstrated in the areas for which Rostec is responsible. I know that colleagues will now say: there is not enough funding, something else. But I am simply stating the very fact of what is happening,” the head of state said.

According to him, we are talking about the results "including projects for the creation of fifth-generation networks, the development of equipment production for the widespread introduction of the Internet of things." "And the project for the development of the microelectronic industry had to be completely restarted last year," the president said.

Putin added that there are positive results in the work of state corporations. He noted the progress made by Sberbank in the field of artificial intelligence, Russian Railways in the field of quantum communications, Rosatom in the field of composite materials.

"However, in general, this work cannot be considered particularly successful either. Five of the 13 areas are not being implemented, and in the rest, at least 20% of the target indicators have been achieved, and, of course, these indicators will not be achieved in 2022," the head said.

caveat emptor wrote:Putin made some comments on Rostec. Maybe Chemezov is on the way out? "Modest" translates to bad, imo. I would like to see Chemezov out. He is corrupted and not too competent. Both tech conglomerates had wrong people on the top ( Chemezov and Chubais) and it shows.

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/15244269

Putin announced modest results of Rostec digital projects

".

in RIA in turn there is a bit different text"

But I’m just stating the very fact of what is happening. generation, the development of production of equipment for widespread implementation (Internet broadcasting). The project for the development of the microelectronic industry had to be completely rebooted last year," Putin said at the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

https://ria.ru/20220718/rostekh-1803213451.html

Borisov gonr beause of this of because of making Roscosmoss better place ?

BTW looks like Manturov is going very high up. Hope this is a good decision.

I'm not sure how much did Roscosmos had with microelectronics industry. Maybe some small parts. Majority is still under Rostec. Manturov already worked in the industry. It's not like he is completely new to it. Let's see.

P.S. Tass stated same thing about rebooting industry.

caveat emptor wrote:I'm not sure how much did Roscosmos had with microelectronics industry. Maybe some small parts. Majority is still under Rostec. Manturov already worked in the industry. It's not like he is completely new to it. Let's see.

P.S. Tass stated same thing about rebooting industry.

apologies I wasnt clear enough. Borisov AFAIK was taking care of Avangard so he somehow knows how to do things but did he fucked up microelectronics? or Roscosmoss needs someone more technically competent? BTW check thread about economical war against Russia, Manturov nicely talked about non market based industrial politics.


https://ria.ru/20220715/promyshlennost-1802658556.html

GunshipDemocracy wrote:
apologies I wasnt clear enough. Borisov AFAIK was taking care of Avangard so he somehow knows how to do things but did he fucked up microelectronics? or Roscosmoss needs someone more technically competent?  BTW check thread about economical war against Russia, Manturov nicely talked about non market based industrial politics.

https://ria.ru/20220715/promyshlennost-1802658556.html

Borisov was in charge of military procurement. Microelectronics industry was never under him. Only in limited quantities needed for army.
One can say that drone development wasn't prioritized enough, but that also has to do in part with old timers in MoD.
I am hoping that, now, shortcomings will be rectified with Manturov and better realisation of officer cadre as to what needs to be procured in bigger quantities.

lancelot wrote:

kvs wrote:The Elbrus architecture dates back to the VLIW used in a series of those "failed" Soviet
mainframes and is a completely Soviet design.   It is the only VLIW architecture alive and well today.   Intel failed with its EPIC since
it could not handle the software end which is critical.

There is another successful VLIW architecture. The former Philips Trimedia chip line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriMedia_%28mediaprocessor%29

It could decode H.264 video in real-time at 90nm. TM3270 released in 2006. Right now the IP is probably available for peanuts and should get out of patent in 4-5 years.

I am talking about CPUs and not specialized processors. E2k should be compared to EPIC.

Obviously not Russian but the implecations are obvious

China’s Top Chipmaker Achieves Breakthrough Despite US Curbs

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. has likely advanced its production technology by two generations, defying US sanctions intended to halt the rise of China’s largest chipmaker.

The Shanghai-based manufacturer is shipping Bitcoin-mining semiconductors built using 7-nanometer technology, industry watchers TechInsights wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. That’s well ahead of SMIC’s established 14nm technology, a measure of fabrication complexity in which narrower transistor widths help produce faster and more efficient chips. Since late 2020, the US has barred the unlicensed sale to the Chinese firm of equipment that can be used to fabricate semiconductors of 10nm and beyond, infuriating Beijing.
...

SMIC’s surprising progress raises questions about how effective the export control mechanism has been and whether Washington can indeed thwart China’s ambition to foster a world-class chip industry at home and reduce reliance on foreign technologies.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-21/china-s-top-chipmaker-makes-big-tech-advances-despite-us-curbs?sref=ihFQzitE

Funny how it's the bitcoin and crypto industry pushing china's semiconductor r&d

Would be wild if its all a ploy to gain more Neon market share. Normally you just out compete or even buy out the competition, but it seems Putin's the rare case of actually RETVRNING to tradition and capturing enemy property by rite of conquest

Amusing but the reality is that if they 30% of the available material and only sell 1% then likely other countries are buying that material and purifying it themselves to make more money and then selling it as part of the rest of the 99% the world uses.

I think it is kind of obvious that Rostec and the others were a failure in terms of microelectronics in the general term.
Russia needs its own state owned electronics champion company I think. And the market is too small for two players.
The electronics business needs to be gutted out and put under a new umbrella.

Mikron, Angstrem-T, GS Nanotech, etc should be put under the same group. Technology needs to be shared and rationalized. Private enterprise and/or state enterprises need to be funded to replace vital foreign products. There are many small victories with regards to semiconductors but overall availability of Russian products is still low.

All semi fabrication and related upstream should be under the same umbrella. Applications and high level designs should still remain private.

They already have examples that worked. UAC, UEC, USC, etc.

I don't get why having smaller and smaller chips is so important.

The F-35 uses a 90nm cpu that is 2 decades old, even Russia domestic production capability is above that in terms of semiconductors size.

Backman wrote:I don't get why having smaller and smaller chips is so important.

The F-35 uses a 90nm cpu that is 2 decades old, even Russia domestic production capability is above that in terms of semiconductors size.

Just look at the desktop CPU and chipset resolutions fro the late 90s and before 2010. They are at resolutions that
Russian can manufacture today. I would not call those ICs useless. Parallel processing has been a thing for a while
now. Several CPU units with several cores are substantial computing resources.

But as has been mentioned before, military computing needs are not general purpose and HPC. They need custom ASICs
handling signal processing. Custom ICs on 90 nm lithography can do the job today and for years to come.

Perhaps they could look at the IBM PC form factors and develop something completely new that utilises more processors to speed different functions up.

The old Amiga computer had custom chips for various jobs that reduced the load on the CPU... in a sense IBM clones started doing that too with graphics cards and sound cards taking jobs away from the CPU, but I would think that Russia could change the design and take that further and use more CPUs and graphics and audio and other custom chips to boost speed bottlenecks that traditionally slow down computers.

They are also developing their own software anyway so why not customise it to take advantage of different processors of different types and different arrangements.

The advantage of having dozens of CPUs is that when you upgrade them and improve each ones performance the performance increase is multiplied by the number of CPUs in each machine... and none of your chips are actually very expensive... so it wont cost a lot.

Some chips might benefit greatly from being speeded up, while others wont matter so much... say with IO functions like the old Southbridge.

Just read an article that Russia is building her own EUV lithography machines to get rid of ASML ones as well as permanently move Chip Fabrication to Russia and not TSMC. They say by 2025 Russia will have 7nm tech. Currently Russia is on 28nm tech with the Elbrus 16S which began production last year. Not bad when you look at it honestly. It does a respectable 1.5TFlops and has 16 cores. A 32 core one is coming out in 2025 I believe. Its rumored to be the 7nm processor. And the rumors I am hearing so far indicate this thing will be a BEAST. Upto 5-7TFlops is expected. VLIW architecture too. That means it is somewhat a little smarter than a conventional X86 chip. 

Anybody know more on this?

Swgman_BK wrote:Currently Russia is on 28nm tech with the Elbrus 16S which began production last year.

But is Elbrus 16S manufactured in Russia? I thought they still contract the manufacturing to TSMC.

As much as I would like it, I doubt they would reach large scale 7nm manufacturing by 2025. More like it would take till 2030 at least. Still a lot of work needs to be done.

They stopped making it there I believe last year or this year. RusNANO and Mikron have reached an agreement to make EUV lithography machines in Russia as well as the fabrication machines and stuff. As we speak Russia is totally independent in the semiconductor industry.

Well we know that the order is set for 2024/2025 by the Ministry of industry in Russia. So I would like to believe Mikron and MCST will have the chip ready by then as the government wants it by 2025 to totally phase out Intel products in the Russian workstations. Bieng able to deliver it by 2025 was one of the requirements set by the government when MCST got the job. Mikron will manufacture it locally. RusNANO is getting ready the machinery to do it for Mikron as ASML no longer sells this stuff to Russia. The Su57 is supposed to use a derivative of the Elbrus 32C in one of its may computers according to some sources in Russia. I smell a UEC for the Russian semiconductor industry too.

It should work unless somehow along the way , budget cuts occur like the Su57 program and the program is paused. Otherwise its on track and nearing completion.

Even if they produce 7nm chips they wont put them any where near any military equipment, most of which is much more conservative.

The only area a 7nm chip might be useful perhaps would be in really high performance computing like processing data from optical or radar or sonar sensors, and also perhaps AI systems.

In the 1990s I would chat to people on the web about military use of computers and at the time they were talking about Pentiums, when in fact it was more 286 and 386 chips and 68000 motorola chips were being used.

The sort of computing in those days was driven by computer games... the actual operation of hardware on an aircraft didn't need a huge amount of processing power and also not a lot of data traffic.

These days a targeting pod will have lots of RAM and lots of processing power for video transmission but they are add on pods that can use newer hardware that is customised for the job.

Most pocket calculators have pathetic clock speeds... like really tragic speeds, but their calculations based on specific buttons and fixed functions means they can still produce results super fast and are good enough for the job.

The increased processing speed of computer chips means the complexity of the jobs and much more elaborate displays which require vastly more data and more processing power can be achieved, so things like calculators and watches can become redundant, it can even automate navigation and other functions like fuel management etc, but that eats in to the processing power of the chips too.

All these Elbrus chips have been produced in Taiwan for years

So can Russia produce enough 65nm transistors to satisfy military and spacecraft demand?