And performance, they are around a decade behind. But it’s good that the duopoly is finally getting some competition.
Not to mention performance on a power adjusted basis.
While I am all for competition; I would support making all IP (copyright - driver code, firmware, EDA deliverables, patents) public domain after 10 years (only for high tech stuff), I doubt this SKU will provide competition on a global scale.
They don’t need to compete on a global scale, their job is to remove the Sword of Damocles hanging over the Party’s head that is the control US has over x86 CPUs and AI accelerators.
Now that they know how to design the logical blocks of both, they can focus on proccess improvements, a work that is well under way.
For the company they’ll manage solid finances from domestic companies needing x86 that may face restrictions from Intel/AMD. Long term, it’s a workforce that’s been getting chip design experience for a good amount of time now. That’ll bode well for the countries chip design industry going forward as their x86 needs declines
