, a Chinese semiconductor start-up backed by state funds and domestic tech giants, has unveiled an ambitious plan to challenge American market leader Nvidia by using alternative chip architectures to sidestep United States-led export controls.
The Shanghai-based firm announced on Monday that its strategy was built on software-defined computing and 3D-stacked near-memory architecture, which it said could reduce reliance on the advanced manufacturing processes and cutting-edge memory currently restricted by Washington.
“We have to forge a path of our own,” founder Wei Shaojun said at the launch event.
“That path cannot be about passively catching up within a framework set by others. We need independent architecture, original technology, a self-sustaining ecosystem and a secure, controllable supply chain.”
To that end, Dongfang Suanxin – or Shanghai Oriental Computing Technology – aims to circumvent traditional hardware constraints by changing how chips process data.
Software-defined computing reconfigures a chip’s computing and data-flow resources on the fly, tailoring the hardware to different workloads.