T-Head, a division of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, introduced a PCIe 5.0 SSD controller with cores based on the open RISC-V architecture. According to Alibaba Cloud, the Zhenyue 510 controller will be used in enterprise-level drives and will find application in Alibaba’s own cloud data centers to serve projects related to AI training, DBMS operation, big data analysis, virtualization, etc.
The new controller, according to the creators, provides 30% lower latency compared to similar solutions. The chip supports 16 NAND channels, provides speeds of up to 14 GB/s and 3.4 million IOPS (if this is not a typo), offers efficient LDPC algorithms and support for SR-IOV. The new T-Head is not alone - in September InnoGrit began mass production of the YR S900, the first Chinese PCIe 5.0 controller for server SSDs, also based on RISC-V.
In 2019, T-Head already debuted the XuanTie 910 IoT chip based on RISC-V, and by Alibaba’s decision, these IP blocks became open. T-Head also developed the Hanguang 800 AI accelerator (2019) and the 128-core Yitian 710 Arm server processor (2021), designed for cloud services. The solutions are used primarily within the PRC.
It is believed that thanks to the openness of RISC-V, China can gain new opportunities to develop the semiconductor industry and reduce dependence on foreign owners of intellectual property, and this is especially important against the backdrop of escalating technological rivalry between the United States and China. American lawmakers are even calling for measures to limit the use of RISC-V architecture for reasons of national security.