Chinese manufacturer starts production of x86 processors based on AMD Zen

Hygon has started production of its Dhyana processors for servers. These are x86 processors that the company can make because it has an AMD license. The chips are almost identical to the AMD Epyc chips.

AMD wouldn’t officially sell its Zen designs to its Chinese chip partners, but Hygon’s Dhyana processors are so similar to the Epyc processors that Linux code is easy to port and patches run without modification, Tom’s Hardware cites some Linux kernel developers.

AMD licenses its technology for the x86 processors, despite the restrictions imposed by the US government and despite the limitations of the license that AMD itself purchases from Intel to make these chips. The fact that AMD can do this has to do with the construction of the joint venture called Thatic, which the company founded in 2016 together with some Chinese manufacturers.

That joint venture, in turn, founded two companies, according to Chinese mydrivers.com: Haiguang Microelectronics Co. Ltd., aka HMC, and Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit Design Co., Ltd, aka Hygon. The intellectual property of the x86 technology is owned by HMC, in which AMD has a majority stake.

HMC would use the technology for ‘its own designs, aimed at the Chinese market’. For this, the company grants a license to Hygon, which then sells the designs back to HMC. He has the chips produced at a foundry and Hygon then markets the resulting processors. With this construction AMD stays within the legal restrictions, according to Tom’s Hardware.