Visitors browse homegrown chips at an industry show in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province in April. Photo: VCG

The first indigenous general-purpose central processing unit (CPU) with a clock speed of 3.0GHz was released by Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co on Wednesday, marking a major breakthrough in the country's semiconductor industry. 

It was the first time that a China-produced CPU reached 3.0GHz, which is the international mainstream standard, and the product marks a major breakthrough by significantly narrowing the gap between Chinese chipset makers and their international competitors.  

Some of the most popular CPU products in the world are designed with a base frequency of 3.0GHz or above.

For instance, the Xeon W-3175X produced by Intel has a base frequency of 3.1GHz, and the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X has a 3.5 GHz base frequency. 

The 16nm 3.0GHz x 86 CPU products made by Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co are from the KX-6000 and KH-30000 series.

According to a report by local news site jfdaily.com, the capacity of Zhaoxin's latest general-purpose lineup has increased by 50 percent compared with the previous generation, with Zhaoxin's KX-6000 series now reaching the equivalent of Intel's mainstream platform i5-7400.  

The semiconductor design and manufacturing sector, deemed a strategically important one for the economy, is flourishing domestically, especially in Shenzhen and Shanghai. 

The number of companies in Shanghai that have an integrated circuit business has reached about 600 with nearly 180,000 employees. The scale of the industry in Shanghai accounts for 22 percent of the nation's total, according to the report.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times Thursday that the breakthrough made by Zhaoxin is significant in commercialization and application of higher-end chipsets in China. "It is huge step forward for the sector in China because it is a product ready to be used in the market," he said, "It means that the stability and safety of the new chipset is already confirmed and can run smoothly in the current ecosystem."

According to Xiang, the traditional challenge for chipsets produced in China is that they have a relatively low market share, and consequently a lack of application on the market. 

"As domestic companies have more capability to compete with international rivals, they will also penetrate deeper into the market. It can in turn provide them with feedback to stabilize the performance of the chipsets in the existing ecosystem."
Newspaper headline: Shanghai company produces 3.0GHz CPU