Intel inside? Chinese firm Powerleader’s ‘home-grown’ chip suspected of being a rebadged microprocessor from US giant, test results show

Microprocessor benchmark testing on Geekbench found that Powerleader’s Powerstar chips were identical to Intel’s Core i3-10105 Comet Lake CPU
Shenzhen-based Powerleader, which has no track record in semiconductor development, has been using Intel chips on its computer products

Semiconductors

Che Panin Beijing

Published: 8:00pm, 30 May 2023

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A purported new “home-grown” chip introduced by a Chinese computer hardware producer this month is suspected to be a rebadged integrated circuit (IC) from Intel Corp, according to a report by online tech news site Tom’s Hardware, based on the results of a central processing unit (CPU) benchmark testing via online cross-platform utility Geekbench.

Testing site Geekbench, a platform run by Canadian software developer Primate Labs, published the key parameters of Shenzhen-based Powerleader’s Powerstar P3-01105 CPUs on May 26 and found the chips identical to Intel’s Core i3-10105 Comet Lake CPU.

The South China Morning Post was unable to independently verify whether the Powerleader chip was indeed an Intel IC in disguise.

Shenzhen-based Powerleader, which has no track record in semiconductor development, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Phone calls made to its head office in Shenzhen and sales service contacts went unanswered.

A man holds between his fingers an example of Intel Corp’s eighth-generation Core i3 microprocessor. The 10th generation of this chip, code-named Comet Lake, was reportedly rebadged as Powerleader’s Powerstar P3-01105 central processing unit. Photo: Shutterstock

Intel has not made any comments on Powerleader’s chip.

The Geekbench findings were widely reported by both Chinese and foreign media outlets focused on computer hardware.

Should the Geekbench findings get confirmed, Powerleader’s Powerstar CPU would mark the latest scandal to tarnish China’s development of indigenous chips, following the infamous Hanxin case in 2006.

A government investigation found that the developer of the Hanxin series of chips, Chen Jin of Shanghai’s prestigious Jiaotong University, had “committed serious falsification and fraud”, the university and state media said at the time.

The Hanxin, or China chip, was initially hailed as the project that would make Shanghai one of the world’s top chip manufacturing centres, when the breakthrough was officially announced in 2003. The project was funded by a special government programme aimed at nurturing major scientific and technological achievements.

The new logo of Intel Corp, which developed the x86 computer architecture, is seen on a smartphone screen on September 2, 2020: Photo: Shutterstock

Powerleader, which has been manufacturing servers and personal computers for industrial users since 1997, had earlier announced in a press conference on May 7 the release of its first-generation Powerstar CPUs.

In a statement at the time, Powerleader said its Powerstar CPUs were developed based on the x86 architecture, and suited for “government, education, energy, industry, finance, healthcare, gaming and retailing” applications.

The company also launched desktop personal computers and workstations equipped with the Powerstar chip. These are manufactured at various production facilities in Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Hebei, Guangxi, Shaanxi and Jiangsu provinces, as well as in Beijing.

Intel’s x86 is a family of complex computer architectures. Most desktop and laptop computers in the global market are based on various iterations of the x86 architecture.

Before its Powerstar chip development initiative, Powerleader had long used Intel processors on its flagship computer products.

The company is owned by Shenzhen Powerleader Investment Holding, which also owns the Hong Kong-listed PowerLeader Science & Technology Group Co.

China has been trying for years to develop its own ICs, but this effort has been restricted by hurdles such as the lack of intellectual property (IP) and locally created instruction set architecture.

As a result Intel’s x86 architecture continues to dominate the computer market, while British chip design firm Arm’s architecture leads in the mobile devices space.

In some cases, Chinese companies buy chip designs from foreign companies. In 2016, cash-strapped chip maker Advanced Micro Devices received Washington’s approval to license the design of its first-generation Zen x86 processors to Chinese chip designer Haiguang, which resulted in the system-on-a-chip called Hygon Dhyana.

Fabless semiconductor company Zhaoxin, which was formed in 2013 as a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the Shanghai municipal government, manufactures x86-compatible desktop and laptop CPUs for the domestic market. Montage Technology’s Jintide CPUs were also developed based on Intel’s proprietary x86 IP cores, with some tweaks to secure data-processing safety.