Russian Electronics: Semiconductor and Processors

ELVIS has developed three new chips

Singular_Transform wrote:Maybe few will be interested.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/sra-centr8/icepeakitx-elbrus-8cb

Elbrus based board on crowdsupply, not open yet, but I am sure many will be interested to have this ELBRUS based computer on hand.

"The Only General-Purpose VLIW CPU Family Today"

Lennox wrote:Avtomatika presented the first budget computer based on the Elbrus-2S3 processor

The Avtomatika Concern of Rostec State Corporation presented at the Army-2021 international military-technical forum the first computer based on the Russian Elbrus-2S3 processor, designed for mass use in the regulated market in the lower price segment. The solution has high performance with small dimensions, provides high information security due to the Russian development of computing cores and meets all the requirements for Russian products.

An entry-level computer created with the participation of the Institute of Electronic Control Machines. I.S. Brook of the Avtomatika concern based on the system on the Elbrus-2S3 chip, has two Elbrus cores of the sixth generation with a clock frequency of 2 GHz, built-in video encoding and decoding units, and a graphics controller with 3D acceleration. The device is compatible with Russian operating systems.

The computer also supports the desktop-class OpenGL graphics standard (software interface for writing applications using two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer graphics), displays information on three independent monitors with a resolution of up to 4k.

The processor is developed using 16 nanometer technology, which provides high technological characteristics of the device.

“This is the first computer based on the Russian Elbrus processor designed for the lower price segment. It has an optimal balance of computing power and price, resistance to cyber attacks due to the presence of secure computing technology and the special Russian architecture "Elbrus". The Elbrus processor is designed for use in laptops, monoblocks, industrial computers and on-board computers. The solution may be of interest to large state-owned companies and commercial enterprises that are interested in using a secure IT infrastructure to ensure reliable storage of information, ”commented Andrey Motorko, General Director of the Avtomatika concern.

To date, engineering samples of reference motherboards are available for software developers and end devices.

Source: https://rostec.ru/news/avtomatika-predstavila-pervyy-byudzhetnyy-kompyuter-na-baze-protsessora-elbrus-2s3-/

Russian_Patriot_ wrote:The first serial Skif chip for mobile devices was presented in Russia. 

Mass production of gadgets based on the "Skif" microprocessor will be launched in 2023. This is the first Russian chip designed specifically for mobile devices. The developer compares its performance with the iPhone 6 and iPad Air. 

Several companies announced at once that they intend to produce tablets based on the new Russian processor for mobile devices "Skif" during its presentation on Friday, September 10. The event, organized by the processor manufacturer JSC "Scientific and Production Center "Electronic Computing and Information Systems" (SPC "Elvis"), was visited by a correspondent of RBC.

SPC "Elvis" is a center for chip design in Russia. It was established in March 1990 on the basis of the structural division of the scientific and production association ELAS, which carried out developments in the field of space electronic technology in the 1960s and 1980s. Now he is engaged in designing radiation-resistant microcircuits for spacecraft, microcircuits for industrial computers, tablets, information security devices, IP video cameras, IP phones, etc. According to SPARK, the sole owner of the joint-stock company is Yaroslav Petrichkovich. Revenue in 2020 — 2.4 billion rubles, net profit — 237 million rubles. 

The Skif mobile processor (the model was named 1892BA018) can be used in tablets, smartphones, smart cameras, telecommunications infrastructure, autonomous robotic complexes and industrial automation. For the first time, Vedomosti reported that the Elvis SPC was preparing to release a similar processor in the spring of this year. The manufacturer has been developing the processor for four years, its representative said. Investments in the project are not disclosed.

According to Anton Semiletov, general director of the Elvis SPC, the performance of phones and tablets based on the Skif will approximately correspond to the iPhone 6 (went on sale in 2014) and the iPad Air (the first model was released in 2013). For example, these devices can have two video cameras with a resolution of up to 16 megapixels, a 4K screen. The microprocessor also has minimal power consumption.

As Sergey Sviridov, adviser to the chairman of the board of directors of the Russian computer equipment manufacturer ICL, told RBC, they intend to release the first such tablets by the middle of next year. If necessary, the company is ready to increase production to more than 300 thousand products per year.

Source: 

https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/143306/

miketheterrible wrote:This goes back to my comment in space sector that there is no such thing as falling behind.  Russia was so far behind in a lot of semiconductors yet in recent years (since 2013), they made leaps and bounds that made them jump a decade+ in semiconductor development.  If they keep it up at this pace, they may reach parity or surpass in certain tech.

nero wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:This goes back to my comment in space sector that there is no such thing as falling behind.  Russia was so far behind in a lot of semiconductors yet in recent years (since 2013), they made leaps and bounds that made them jump a decade+ in semiconductor development.  If they keep it up at this pace, they may reach parity or surpass in certain tech.

That specific chipset you're talking about is using ARM cores and is manufactured in TSMC.

Mikron can currently do 68 nm process. At volumes completely insignificant to global or internal market.

miketheterrible wrote:45nm actually. Same with GS nanogroup. [...]

kvs wrote:Where did you get the 68 nm figure from? It is 65 nm and has been for several years already.

nero wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:45nm actually. Same with GS nanogroup. [...]

https://en.mikron.ru/capabilities/technology/

Here they list that they can currently do 65 nm, with a '*' that says 'Under Development'.

I was not able to find anything relevant to chip-manufacturing on the GS Nanogroup website.

miketheterrible wrote:It is how the lithography equipment works.  65nm for full rate production, 45nm for low rate production.  300mm for 65, 200mm for 45.

nero wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:It is how the lithography equipment works.  65nm for full rate production, 45nm for low rate production.  300mm for 65, 200mm for 45.

I understand, but most manufacturers use the following when describing their process*:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_scale_examples

* - Well, mostly, anyways.

Lithography is a fairly complicated science and simple 'x' values don't do justice to correctly attribute how good the equipment itself is. That said, the current technology used in Mikron is far behind other competitors.

Even if they managed to reach the 14 nm process range, their volumes are laughable and they will not be able to compete with the wide-market as they will not be able to fulfill the demand(-s) that the market has.

What they can fulfill is government orders and the government is completely happy with the volume that they are able to provide for them. They could probably grow to match Russian internal market demands (more $ in means more $ they can invest into production lines), but they are currently noncompetitive when compared to other providers.

I would be interested to know what equipment they use and who manufactures it though.

miketheterrible wrote:What is important is Russias market, Russian needs and especially government and military. This is what we been saying all along.

nero wrote:What they can fulfill is government orders and the government is completely happy with the volume that they are able to provide for them.

miketheterrible wrote:Did you know that Intel uses upwards to 95nm for their military chips? There is a reason why.

Vann7 wrote:

to claims that "is not important" to build ,your own technology , because most don't do it , shows ,
how incredibly delusional you are.  Did you know that americans can block Russia entire semiconductor program  ? by telling Taiwan , to not work with Russia , that will be enough to leave Russia in the stone age ,and forced to buy chinese computers for their military. because they suck so much in doing this  

At Baikal Electronics we create our products using the latest standards and the processor architecture recognized and supported by the industry. This allows the Baikal line of processors to fit the vast ecosystem which has been developing for a few decades now and has a notable potential in the growing markets.

BE-M1000 is a feature-rich system-on-a-chip with eight ARM Cortex-A57 cores, an 8-core Mali-T628 GPU, and a set of high-speed interfaces including HDMI, PCI Express, 10Gb Ethernet and SATA. This SoC can be used in desktops, microservers, and embedded applications.

Russia is turning into a major electronics manufacturer. We followed in the footsteps of China.

In Russia, like mushrooms after the rain, electronics factories are growing - one larger than the other. Moreover, it already smacks of such a bat for the market that soon it will not seem like a little. But this is good for the market.

And this trend - towards the creation in Russia of a large full-fledged industry for the production of electronic devices - is directly felt. When, as yet, the scattered individual bricks have not yet been built into something integral, but you already begin to vaguely understand that there will be something grandiose here.

Recently, with the support of FRP, a new plant of the Macro EMS company was opened. I was there last year, before the opening, and even then there was a very serious production of very complex devices with a focus on reliability. And then they showed me the construction site, finishing work was already going on inside. And so the factory was opened.



Literally afterwards, the Rikor plant was opened in Arzamas, and again with the support of the FRP. They will make laptops, tablets, servers. More precisely, they are already doing it. The factory is equipped not only with equipment for the production of electronics, but also with metalworking equipment for the production of cases of any complexity. But boards are ordered on the side, in China and on Rezonit in Russia.



"Rezonit", and I have also been there, it is expanding and is building a new factory in the SEZ "Technopolis" Moscow "site" Alabushevo ". There is the production of printed circuit boards of any complexity, and the assembly of components. But again, this is an expansion, and this is how the plant has been operating for a long time.



But Rezonit seems to have a competitor. Yadro started building its own factory in Dubna.

The group of Russian technology companies Yadro has started the main phase of construction in Dubna, Russia's largest full-cycle plant for the production of radio-electronic products. The plant will produce domestic personal devices that will meet all international standards. Its capacity will be up to 1 million units of equipment per year.

YADRO FAB DUBNA is a large-scale high-tech full-cycle production with an area of ​​over 40,000 m². YADRO FAB DUBNA will launch in the second quarter of 2023 and reach full performance at the end of the same year.

Moreover, the plant also includes the production of printed circuit boards, that is, YADRO FAB DUBNA will produce full-cycle electronics - there is nowhere more complete, so complete that most large manufacturers do not have this. I'll just remind you that the production of printed circuit boards is a very complex high-tech process, if you are interested, then here is my very detailed article on how printed circuit boards are made, but even there are only the main stages.



By the way, this article about the Svyaz Engineering KB plant is located in Dubna. And, unfortunately, it went bankrupt as a result and has been mothballed for many years. Probably YADRO will somehow use it in their megaproject YADRO FAB DUBNA.

And this is just an indicator. When Svyaz Engineering KB, a resident of the Dubna Special Economic Zone, opened a new, ultra-modern PCB manufacturing plant in the SEZ in 2015, it looked, how to put it mildly, unusual. It is unclear who will order when there is China, and there was only hope for the parent company. But it didn't work out, the plant stopped.

And today, 6 years later, electronics factories are growing like mushrooms. And this creates that necessary critical mass of consumers when manufacturers of the second echelon - chemistry, components, solders, textolite, phosphors, equipment - follow them. China followed this path. And today he is competing not at the expense of low salaries, but at the expense of a well-functioning ecosystem, where everything that needs to be produced “behind the fence”, and due to this, amazing efficiency is obtained.

This is not done by order, is not created by presidential decree and is not planned for specific dates. This is a long process, but there is no other way, and, fortunately, Russia, it is already quite obvious, is confidently following this path.

PS The photos in the article are mine, I've been everywhere in person. But these are not all electronics factories I have visited. And by the way, they will write that this is all a screwdriver assembly (they will never master an article about how printed circuit boards are made, there are a lot of letters). But here's a board completely made in Russia. 100%. Including every component on it. Including textolite, chemistry, and even the equipment on which it is made. Also a photo of the author.



https://www.russiapost.su/archives/272340?fbclid=IwAR0XhKM7sQjG_BiLfDUTxkhTzCZGASBUl8E8mwGIFLizIf2pso4XbVCAAww

Russian scientists have created a chip for a new generation of photonic technology

Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET) and the Moscow State Pedagogical University (MPGU), together with other Russian scientists, have created a chip for developing a new generation of photonic circuits. Experts say that the developed technology for the manufacture of non-volatile reconfigurable nanophotonic chips is ready for implementation in microelectronic production without additional upgrades.

A team of scientists from MIET and Moscow State Pedagogical University has created fully optical tunable ring microcavities based on silicon nitride and thin films of one of the so-called phase memory materials - Ge-Sb-Te (GST). The main feature of these materials is the change in optical and electrical properties when switching between amorphous (disordered) and crystalline (ordered) states.

“In the chip we have developed, the surface of silicon nitride ring microcavities is locally covered with a thin GST film. A change in the phase state of the GST coating and, consequently, its absorption, leads to a change in the optical signal passing through the waveguide. The switching of phase states can be initiated by laser pulses passing through the waveguide, ”said Petr Lazarenko, senior researcher at the Institute of Advanced Materials and Technologies, MIET.

Phase switching occurs in 10 nanoseconds, and the GST film is one of the most optimal materials for controlling signals in thin-film waveguide elements used in telecommunication devices.

According to the specialists of the scientific group, the technology they have developed for the manufacture of non-volatile reconfigurable nanophotonic chips is completely ready for implementation in microelectronic production, since it can be fully implemented using standard CMOS technology processes and does not require additional modernization of installations.

Now the research team is optimizing the chip to increase the number of written logic levels. Also, the research group develops approaches to the design of new integrated-optical circuits and systems based on them.

https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/144962/