Lisuan Technology, a Chinese graphics card startup, has announced via the company's official WeChat account that its forthcoming G100 graphics card has successfully powered on, marking a significant milestone in its deployment. The G100 purports to be China's first domestic 6nm graphics card.
As China embarked on its journey towards technological independence, a wave of industry veterans joined the gold rush. Founded in 2021, Lisuan Technology is among the youngest startups in the graphics card sector, alongside Moore Threads (2020) and Biren (2019).
Lisuan Technology has considerable backing, as it was reportedly established by industry veterans boasting more than 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley. The same can be said for Moore Threads, which was founded by Zhang Jianzhong, the former vice-president and general manager of Nvidia China.
Little information is available regarding the G100, besides its use of Lisuan Technology's proprietary TrueGPU architecture. In contrast to some Chinese firms that license intellectual property (IP) from sources like Imagination, TrueGPU asserts that it is an in-house architecture developed from the ground up.
Lisuan Technology previously stated that the G100 is created using a 6nm process node but did not reveal the manufacturer. Due to U.S. export restrictions, China cannot access the 6nm node, ruling out Samsung and TSMC as options. As a result, it is likely that the Chinese foundry SMIC is responsible for producing the silicon using its 6nm manufacturing process, which is also implemented for Huawei's latest Ascend 920 AI chip.
With limited information, we can only rely on rumors regarding the specifications of G100. For example, it is claimed that the G100 provides performance similar to the GeForce RTX 4060. This claim generates significant skepticism, as the GeForce RTX 4060, despite being a last-generation product, is still regarded as one of the best graphics cards available; we have yet to see a Chinese-made graphics card rival it.
Additionally, the G100 is rumored to feature ample memory and modest power consumption. The G100 reportedly supports popular APIs such as DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenGL 3.0, suggesting that G100 could be a decent gaming graphics card.
Work on the G100 started in 2021, with Lisuan Technology originally aiming for a 2023 launch. However, financial difficulties obstructed these plans, and by 2024, the company neared bankruptcy. To support the struggling startup, Dongxin Semiconductor, its parent company, provided a substantial financial boost of $27.7 million, enabling continued development of the G100.
Lisuan Technology has successfully obtained the first G100 chips from the foundry, and they are operational. The outcomes seem to meet the startup's expectations. As a result, the company has moved forward with software and hardware validation as well as driver optimization.
Clearly, the G100 has considerable progress ahead before reaching the retail market. It is reportedly in the tape-out phase and is currently undergoing risk trial production. Completing a 6nm tape-out requires substantial time and investment, indicating that Lisuan Technology is at a pivotal point in G100's development. Lisuan Technology intends to deliver small quantities of G100 in the third quarter of this year. Nonetheless, given the timeline, mass production likely won't happen until 2026.
Targeting the performance of the GeForce RTX 4060 isn't bad; however, the G100 needs to function as a reliable graphics card right from the start. It’s unreasonable to expect Lisuan Technology's first attempt to compete with the likes of Nvidia, AMD, or even Intel.
Creating a good graphics card from scratch demands considerable time and effort. Moore Threads has demonstrated that the software aspect is just as crucial as the hardware, given that new driver updates can significantly boost performance. We might see the first benchmarks for the G100 before the end of the year.
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