Russian Electronics: Semiconductor and Processors #2

In that resolution the building looks like 28nm.

It is a free Sentinel-2 satellite picture. So yeah the image resolution sucks.

On Google Maps, with older but higher resolution pictures, you can see the site still under construction.

As per the original plan the building was to be finished in 2024. And that is so.

I mean, rather overkill for an ATM but hey, what works, works. 

ATM´s will lead the revolt of robots against humans. 

https://rostec.ru/news/razrabotka-rostekha-povysit-nadezhnost-i-pomekhoustoychivost-zagorizontnoy-svyazi-do-6000-km/

Ruselectronics Holding of Rostec State Corporation has developed a technology that makes it possible to increase the reliability and noise immunity of short-wave radio communication outside the line of sight at a distance of up to 6000 km.

The method of diversity signal reception proposed by the engineers of the Research and Production Enterprise "Polet" of the Ruselectronics holding makes it possible to organize communication simultaneously on several frequencies and condense the transmitted information without deteriorating its reliability. The new technology ensures the transmission of radio waves over a multipath channel, their reception by antenna elements separated in space and the subsequent summation of the received signals. The system can be used to improve the reliability and immunity of dual-purpose HF radio links.

"The solution includes frequency spacing, orthogonal signals, and majority decoding. The technology was successfully tested during tests of equipment developed by RPC Polet to organize communication with aircraft located at very long distances from the control center," said Alexander Kestovich, the developer of the solution, leading researcher at RPC Polet.

In 2024, the development of Polyot won the I.P. Kulibin Prize of the Nizhny Novgorod Region in the category "Best Invention of the Year in the Field of Electronics, Information and Communication Systems and Communications".

NPP Polyot is one of the leading developers and manufacturers of aviation radio communications for military and civil purposes in Russia. Among the company's products are equipment for Su-57, Su-35S fighters, as well as Il-76 military transport aircraft of various modifications, as well as modernized Tu-95 and Tu-160 long-range aircraft. In addition, the company produces short- and long-distance communication equipment for the MS-21 liner.

Syntacore updated their website:
https://syntacore.com/

They have the SCR6/7/9 RISC-V cores with 128-bit optional vector unit which are dual issue 12 stage superscalar cores.
The wider issue cores they were supposedly designing are not publicly available yet.

Syntacore is owned by YADRO. A major server hardware manufacturer in Russia. They make commercial servers.
https://yadro.com/ru/syntacore-acquisition

The other major RISC-V core design company, CloudBEAR, is partly owned by the same owners of Baikal.
https://cloudbear.ru/news-baikal-investment.html

The first Russian photolithograph was created in Zelenograd - it is suitable for producing 350 nm chips
06/04/2024

“We assembled and made the first domestic lithograph. It is now undergoing testing as part of the technological line in Zelenograd,” this is how an official from the Ministry of Industry announced this significant event for Russian microelectronics, on whose order the Zelenograd Nanotechnology Center (ZNTC) has been developing since 2022 . By the end of 2024, it should be completed with the creation of a prototype photolithograph for the production of microcircuits with a topological level of 350 nm. ZNTC plans to launch serial production of this equipment by the end of 2025.

“Chips with a size of 350 nanometers, although considered large, are still used in many industries, including the automotive industry, energy and telecommunications,” TASS comments on the level of the first photolithograph.

A photolithograph (stepper) for the production of 350 nm microcircuits is an installation weighing 3.5 tons and dimensions 2x2.6x2.5 meters (optical-mechanical device, laser lens with an operating wavelength of 365 nm) plus a control complex. Photolithography processes take place inside: individual processing of silicon wafers (150 and 200 mm in diameter) with automatic loading and unloading of them from cassettes.

Two competitions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the development of domestic installations for printing microcircuits on silicon wafers ( the first with a topology level of up to 130 nm with the prospect of its subsequent modernization to a topological level of 65 nm, the second - up to 350 nm) were held in the fall of 2021. ZNTC became the winner of both as the only participant. The final contract value for the first competition was 5.7 billion rubles, for the second - almost 1 billion rubles. The development of photolithographs is one of the first projects of the state program to localize in Russia the technological chain for the production of microcircuits with topological standards of 350...130 nm using completely Russian equipment, as reported in the nanocenter.

“As part of the project to develop a 350 nm photolithograph, we are taking a ready-made laser - a semiconductor, domestic one. Perhaps Zelenograd companies specializing in laser technologies will be able to take part in the supply of such equipment in the future; a separate competitive procedure will be held for this,” ZNTC General Director Anatoly Kovalev told Zelenograd.ru.

ZNTC's partners in developing a photolithograph are the Russian laser manufacturer LASSARD and the Belarusian company Planar, which has retained competence in the development of photolithographs since the times of the USSR. At the beginning of 2023, ZNTC agreed with the Belarusian chip manufacturer Integral on the conditions for pre-ordering equipment for photolithography with a topology level of 350 nm.

Today, only three companies in the world produce such equipment: the Dutch ASML, which occupies 84% ​​of the market, and two Japanese companies - Nikon and Canon. “The cost of domestic photolithographs, according to our preliminary estimates, should be lower than foreign ones,” predicted Anatoly Kovalev. “But that’s not the only important thing.” Today, the import of new photolithographic equipment to Russia is under serious restrictions, and in any case, the country needs to solve the problem of developing its own steppers, since photolithography is the basis of any technological process in microelectronics.”

The head of the technological equipment development center and the chief designer of two R&D projects for the creation of domestic photolithographs, Dmitry Kalbazov, spoke in more detail about the progress of the development of the first Russian photolithograph in 2022 and the operating principles of this installation on the Culture TV channel.

As for the 130-65 nm photolithograph, it is planned to develop a completely domestic laser with a wavelength of 193 nm from scratch and obtain a prototype stepper by the end of 2026.

https://www.zelenograd.ru/news/55678/

Im so glad that Russia started investing in microelectronics! I hope industrial robotics will follow

lancelot wrote:

The first Russian photolithograph was created in Zelenograd - it is suitable for producing 350 nm chips
06/04/2024
Today, only three companies in the world produce such equipment: the Dutch ASML, which occupies 84% ​​of the market, and two Japanese companies - Nikon and Canon. “The cost of domestic photolithographs, according to our preliminary estimates, should be lower than foreign ones,” predicted Anatoly Kovalev.

Current market, yes, but not exactly in the near future. SMEE is taking on ASML with 28nm tech. Generally, China is investing billions of USD in microelectronic lithography companies. The USA is trying to slow the Chinese down since they are unable to stop the progress.

GarryB wrote:So basically what I took from that article is that a Russian company got together with a Belarussian company to make a new lithography machine... the Russian company has nothing to do with lasers and the laser was provided by the company from Belarus that is using technology from the Soviet era.

No. The laser is provided by LASSARD. Which is a Russian laser manufacturer.
https://lassard.ru/ru/

Belarussian company Planar is aiding building the lithograph machine itself. Because they have experience building lithographs.
http://www.kb-omo.by/

Minsk used to be a major computing industry site in the Soviet Union. For example the Minsk series of computers was made there.
https://www.computer-museum.ru/english/minsk0.htm

Planar in Belarus continued making lithographs after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviets never had 350nm level of lithography. That is on the level of the Pentium II processor.

The Soviets were stuck at like the 3um CMOS process when they collapsed. 3um = 3000nm. And they were still using contact lithography I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K1839

I don't think anyone could develope whole Lithography machine in two years and this one is allready industrial one, which is now instaling in production plant. I would say they are replacing imported laser with domestic one as contract want fully dpomestic machine. For 350 nm technology, they already have domestic one and machine is build and will be now tested, for 130 to 65 nm they have to develop laser. Who knows, how many lithography machines they already produce with imported laser to increase chip production. Chinese lasers could do the job as well to counter western sanctions..

medo wrote:I don't think anyone could develope whole Lithography machine in two years and this one is allready industrial one, which is now instaling in production plant. I would say they are replacing imported laser with domestic one as contract want fully dpomestic machine. For 350 nm technology, they already have domestic one and machine is build and will be now tested, for 130 to 65 nm they have to develop laser. Who knows, how many lithography machines they already produce with imported laser to increase chip production. Chinese lasers could do the job as well to counter western sanctions..

Russia has been a pioneer of laser technology since the onset. I wouldn't be surprised if they could produce better lasers than the Chinese for this machine.

The so called legacy chips are still used in nearly all consumer appliances and automobiles.

The vast amount of US chip manufacturing capacity is in fact these so called legacy chips. They are done by companies like Onsemi, and Texas Instruments. The entirety of European and Japanese manufacturers make exclusively legacy chips. This includes companies like STMicro, NXP, and Renesas.

Most capacity in semiconductor foundries is also these so called legacy chips. This includes foundry companies like UMC, Powerchip, and GlobalFoundries. And some foundries can in fact only produce such chips like Tower or X-Fab. Even the so called leading edge companies like TSMC or Samsung also have a huge amount of capacity in so called legacy nodes. TSMC even continues to operate a 150mm wafer diameter fab aka Fab 2 to this day.

Chip factories aka 'fabs' historically have doubled in price every couple of process nodes. The prices of tools increase that way. Paradoxically this means that when the US prevented Chinese chip companies from investing in the latest high end EUV machines, they made these gargantuan investments into older DUV machines possible. Because the Chinese still had the same capital to invest. Except this time they would be spending it on much cheaper tools. This means more capacity, i.e. wafers, for the same money. The Chinese can get twice the 28nm wafer capacity compared to 5nm capacity given the same capital.

The Chinese will also be using the latest tools to produce their legacy nodes. Which means they could be using machines with higher wafer output and thus better economies of scale.

GarryB wrote:The Russians making their own chips for military purposes is one thing, but China doing it as well means western chip makers days might be numbered because they generate a lot of revenue by selling chips to the Chinese for production in China.

When so much of the worlds consumer electronics are made in China then who sells the chips to China makes good money.

By cutting off the high end chips they are branding themselves unreliable suppliers so of course China is going to invest in replacing their cheaper chips from their market, and as they spend more money on the higher end chips then that gap is being resolved too.

One of the videos I posted above started with a lecturer at a major US university who points out that the Chinese are not great at coming up with original ideas, but once they get those ideas they are able to take them further and faster than American companies and universities can simply because of numbers.

Perhaps the Russians can create a niche by being the ideas people... when needed, and together with the Chinese develop new ideas into new technology that can be made into hard ware and serially produced for the market.

Obviously there will be Chinese people who will be even better at coming up with ideas than the Americans or Russians and they should help make BRICS great too.

But the west has remained wealthy by being the middleman between Russia and the world and for the Chinese to produce their products for them to sell to the world.

This bullshit trying to break up Russia and weaken China has merely pushed both countries away from the west and now they can take advantage of the situation and engage the rest of the world directly instead of through their middlemen and negotiate much better contracts that don't siphon money from the trade into western pockets, and means more products for the customer and more money goes to the countries that make the products.

Anyway I was just reading an article mentioning that Russia want to start soon serial production of chips with 65 nm node technology.  This should be like early 2000 technology, like pentium 4. If they manage to have a decent serial production in high numbers, they will solve most issues with chips for automotive and many other tasks.  They are not good enough for modern smartphone or tablets (unless one accepts much more basic performances), but a dedicated operative system which is not inefficient and does not try to do everything could allow to have at least an indigenous alternative for most tasks.

My understanding is that the plans are to get to serial production of 28 nm node technology by 2028 and 14 nm node technology by 2030.

They are quite challenging if they want to establish completely independent production of chips and photolithography machines, unless they get massive investments from the government and possibly help from China for aquiring such technologies and production capabilities in a shorter time

GarryB wrote:They have the advantage that their software is not going to be bloatware and spyware that takes up lots of space and takes up clock time transmitting everything to Apple or the NSA or something.

I remember a computer game I used to play in the 1990s called Frontier elite II.

My phone is more powerful than my laptop of 4 or so years ago. It's power is phenomenal. But what does it really do? **** all. I can't help but think the "Microsoft downloads" are actually UPLOADS of everything I do.
I'm sure the gang behind the WEF etc are profiling each and every one of us. And probably brainwashing us without us even knowing it. The big question is... what the hell is their end game.... if they are openly such scumbags eg "you will own nothing and be happy".

I think I remember that game as a little kid.
I would always buy arms, and drugs and hoes to trade.
So I would always get chased out of that sector of the galaxy.
But yeah in the Commodore era it was amazing what they could do with limited hardware.

Whilst there has been a quantum leap in hardware power, the games are still games... infront of a screen etc.

The real quantum leap will be VR where u can walk around. Or even better, something like the Star Trek holodeck.
Personally I reckon a holodeck might be feasible if it was at a centre rather than at home. All depends on how it is done.

By that time we may all be digital slaves of the WEF anyway, yearning for the days before 15 minute cities and energy rationing to (LMAO) "save the Planet".

GS Group has shipped 100,000 Russian RISC-V-based MIK32 Amur microcontrollers — another 400,000 are on the way
July 16, 2024

The Kaliningrad-based GS Nanotech company, part of the GS Group holding, announced the assembly and shipment of the 100,000th batch of MIK32 Amur microcontrollers on the open RISC-V architecture, ordered by JSC Mikron.

According to JSC Mikron, due to high demand and in order to increase the volume of product packaging, in addition to its own assembly production, the company uses the capacities of GS Nanotech, which, under the agreement, will assemble up to 0.5 million Amur microcontrollers in a case by the end of the year. “We have extensive experience in microcontroller packaging and are pleased to apply it in cooperation with our long-standing partner,” said GS Group Vice President for Production Development.

As reported, during the execution of the order, GS Nanotech used the experience previously accumulated in large-scale assembly of chips in BGA, LGA packages, as well as complex multi-pin microcircuits, including using SiP (system-in-package) technology. Thanks to this, the yield of good products was 99.2%. The company also developed a test program to control full compliance with the declared characteristics of the microcontrollers.

“MIK32 Amur” (K1949VK018) is the first fully domestic 32-bit microcontroller with a core on the RISC-V architecture, which was developed and manufactured in Russia by the Element Group of Companies (developed jointly with the Progress Research Institute of Microelectronics, manufactured by Mikron). The product is included in the Unified Register of Russian Radio-Electronic Products (RF PP 878) and its production does not depend on licensed foreign intellectual property.

https://www.aroged.com/2024/07/16/gs-group-has-shipped-100000-russian-risc-v-based-mik32-amur-microcontrollers-another-400000-are-on-the-way/

Demand for the first Russian RISC-V microcontroller MIK32 “Amur” exceeded expectations
May 4, 2024

The Element group company faced high demand for its own microcontroller MIK32 “Amur”. We are talking about millions of pieces, which is why their packaging is carried out not only at our own facilities in Zelenograd near Moscow, but also at third-party contract production. Vedomosti writes about this with reference to its own informed sources.

The message says that orders for packaging MIK32 Amur microcontrollers have also been placed at the Kaliningrad enterprise of the GS Group. A representative of Element confirmed this information, but did not specify how many orders we are talking about. A source close to several industry companies said that GS Group expects to package more than 2 million MIK32 Amur microcontrollers in 2024-2025.

Let us remind you that MIK32 “Amur” is the first completely domestic microcontroller with a core based on the open RISC-V architecture, the production of which began this year. A microcontroller, unlike a microprocessor, can only perform specified, highly specialized operations. It can be used, for example, in smart home devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), transport infrastructure, telecommunications equipment, robotics, etc. The device was developed by specialists from Mikron and NIIMA Progress (also part of the Element Group of Companies).

In 2022, the media wrote that Mikron planned to invest 80-90 million rubles in the development of this microcontroller, and another 100-300 million rubles in the launch of mass production. At that time, the company planned to occupy 30% of the Russian microcontroller market by 2025, and then begin exporting devices to Southeast Asian countries.

According to BusinesStat, the production of processors and controllers in Russia in 2023 decreased by 22% compared to the figures for 2021 and amounted to 8.1 million units. The decrease in production volumes is due to the ban of Western countries on the supply of certain components, software and equipment to Russia, as well as the fact that the state has tightened localization requirements.

As for Mikron's production capabilities, in March of this year the company launched chip packaging lines capable of producing up to 18 million products per year. According to a representative of the Element Group of Companies, since the start of sales of the MIK32 Amur microcontroller in February of this year, there has been an increased demand for the product. A source close to Element said that several hundred companies are interested in purchasing microcontrollers, including telecommunications operators and manufacturers of smart devices. He also added that the first batches of microcontrollers that were created at the Micron plant have already been completely sold out.

The message also says that Mikron is currently going through the “run-in” stage of production and is producing pilot batches on new lines, so some orders are placed at other people’s facilities. Setting up production may take several months, after which the company will leave the GS Group facilities and will cover all its needs by the end of summer 2024.

“The high demand for the Amur microcontroller looks quite natural, since at the moment it is the only domestic microcontroller that is both developed and produced in Russia, and is available for mass production. It can be considered a breakthrough device not only for Mikron itself, but also for Russian microelectronics in general,” says Andrey Evdokimov, CEO of Baikal Electronics. He also added that the market demand for such a microcontroller is very high and can amount to hundreds of thousands of units per year.

https://www.aroged.com/2024/05/04/demand-for-the-first-russian-risc-v-microcontroller-mik32-amur-exceeded-expectations/

The world of microchips is killing Washington's dream of isolating Russia, by Anastasia Kulikova, Evgeniy Pozdnyakov for VZGLYAD. 07.25.2024.

Experts Explain Why the US Won't Be Able to Isolate Russia in Microelectronics.

American media are sounding the alarm: Russia, despite sanctions, still manages to purchase microchips produced by US companies. As experts note, the use of imported chips is standard international practice, and it is impossible to stop it. Why did Washington's plans for a technical blockade of Moscow fail?

Since the escalation of the situation in Ukraine, Moscow has received American chips for combat electronics worth $4 billion, The New York Times writes . According to journalists, a significant portion of Russian missiles are equipped with an FPGA gate array produced by Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

It is noted that many of the chips were purchased through a group of shell companies in Hong Kong. Citing customs data, the NYT claims that Moscow imported goods worth more than $390 million, which is only part of the "efforts to circumvent sanctions."

According to the authors of the publication, Russia "quickly reoriented its supply chains," starting with a search for friendly countries and ports willing to service its ships. This gave Moscow the opportunity to purchase chips through Turkey, the UAE, and Morocco. China has become another important supplier of chips.

Washington has long been trying to limit the supply of American electronic products to Russia. Moreover, the fight is also being waged against individual citizens who, according to the Americans, are assisting Moscow. Thus, in November of last year, four people were arrested in America for allegedly shipping more than $7 million in semiconductors, integrated circuits, and other electronics to Russia. In addition, the federal court of the Southern District of New York recently sentenced Russian Maxim Marchenko to three years in prison and 36 months of supervised release for the illegal purchase and shipment of American dual-use microelectronics, RIA Novosti writes .

Let us recall that in April, Bloomberg reported that American officials were actively searching for companies violating the current restrictions. At the same time, the newspaper pointed out that general control over compliance with the restrictions is extremely problematic.

The expert community is convinced that the use of imported microelectronics is a common international practice. And the United States will not be able to limit supplies. "The modern electronic world is a huge range of chips, hundreds and even thousands of products. They can be universal or with a very narrow specialization. And no country in the world creates the entire set of microelectronic components on its national territory," explained Alexey Anpilogov, president of the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research and Development of Civil Initiatives "Osnovanie".

And although Russia has its own production, “we still import a significant amount of electronics and use them.” “This has never been a secret. And after the fragments of our missiles fell into the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they performed reverse engineering and determined that the circuitry is absolutely Russian, but some of the components are of Western origin,” the expert explained.

"We mainly use integrated circuits: memory, processors, various controllers. At the same time, we must realize that there is a certain vulnerability in this story - if Western countries could completely block the export of this kind of equipment, our military-industrial complex would face problems," the analyst reasons.

But the US cannot limit such supplies. "The thing is that most of the chips are dual-use items. For example, in our Lancet, the main aiming unit is similar to the device from a game console. And it's all about the similarity of functions - in both cases, it is necessary to process a large volume of graphic data," says Anpilogov.

“No one can limit the distribution of consoles,

and considering the sales volumes, this generally seems unrealistic. Moreover, even if this is done, then next to the closed company tomorrow, exactly the same one will emerge, which will continue to provide consumers, including the Russian military-industrial complex," the speaker added.

Another difficulty for the US is the small volumes of chips needed by Russia. "We don't need millions of products. And tracking several thousand units is practically impossible," the specialist explains. He also points out that countries such as China, Iran and many other states, which "the Western world has included in the new 'axis of evil,' operate according to a similar scheme."

"And they all cooperate with friendly states, with the Global South, and quietly cover their own needs," the analyst emphasizes. At the same time, he pointed out that the sanctions that the Americans are vigorously introducing also lead to a positive effect - each country begins to pay more attention to the development of its own technologies.

Moreover, rockets do not, in principle, need the most modern electronics.

"It's all quite delicate, requires fine tuning and consumes a lot of energy, which is important. The military prefers to use old-generation chips, since they are reliable and more resistant to various impacts," Anpilogov noted.

Russia has always had a certain deficit of military electronics, recalls Ilya Kramnik, a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Strategic Planning at the IMEMO RAS. “That’s why we had to import a significant portion of semiconductor devices,” the expert said.

He found it unsurprising that Moscow continues this practice. Although this is not without difficulties. "The US tried to stop electronics supplies to Russia back in the days of the USSR, and this continues today. The sanctions imposed by Washington and the arrests of people accused of exporting equipment in defiance of restrictions complicate purchases - at the very least, the price goes up, but they do not stop them," the speaker explained.

"At the same time, the United States is unable to completely cut off supplies because in the United States the weight of corporations and manufacturers is much higher than political interests. Politicians come and go, but business remains," the analyst elaborated. He agreed with Anpilogov that modern missiles need not so much advanced as reliable electronics. “One of the requirements for military electronics is stability and the ability to operate in the harshest conditions: vibration, overload, strong interference. Even formally old chips in terms of technical capabilities are a very high technological product in military performance. Therefore, we do not need for the same drones the kind of power that we require from modern graphic stations or personal computers,” the expert noted.

Often, the only question is how exactly to assemble the parts. "We have our own designs of radio electronics, which simply use components of foreign origin... We reproduced some things ourselves, and some we did not. But, of course, the lag must be overcome. Very large funds are currently being invested in this and significant resources are being attracted, the work is underway," Kramnik concluded.

https://vz.ru/politics/2024/7/25/1279167.html