ARM chooses a Chinese Co to license its architecture

The leader in microprocessor Intellectual Property ARM has licensed the ARMv8-A architecture to Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology, a joint venture between China's Guizhou province and a subsidiary of Qualcomm.

The Chinese company will make ARM-based chipsets for servers in data centers, although it is unclear if the server chipsets will be based on Qualcomm technology, which holds a minority stake in the joint venture. The small Guizhou province is considered a big data hub, as it hosts 2.5 million servers, including some used by China's top telecom companies.

Beyond ARM, Chinese companies have access to other chip architectures. Suzhou PowerCore Technology is making chips based on Power architecture for the Chinese server market. AMD is licensing its server chip technology to Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment, a joint venture between AMD and a consortium of Chinese companies.

The market for data center equipment in China is exploding on the back of data and cloud-based services, and companies like Baidu and Tencent are taking advantage of it by building mega data centers, much like Google’s and Facebook’s in the U.S.

For China making homegrown chips keeps factories busy and workers occupied. The country wants to invest in technology to drive economic growth. The country's latest chip is now powering the world's fastest computer, called Sunway TaihuLight at the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, China.