Baikal

In Russia the line of domestic Baikal microprocessors will be created by topology of 28 nanometers. Development is conducted by affiliated enterprise of T-Platforms company with assistance of Rostec, Rusnano acts as one of investors. On development of the microchip tens of millions of dollars can be required.

2020: Compatibility of Dr.Web and "A viola Workstation 9" on Baikal processors

The companies "Dr.Web", "Baikal Electronics" and "BaseALT" announced that Dr.Web became the first antivirus, compatible to a hardware platform of Baikal under management OS "Viola Workstation 9". Reported about it to Baikal Electronics on December 18, 2020. In more detail here.

2019: Compatibility of Astra Linux and CryptoPro CSP on Baikal processors

On January 24, 2019 the company ASTRALINUX reported that means electronic signature CryptoPro CSP is certified for application in the Russian to the operating system Astra Linux for processor architecture "Elbrus" and "Baikal" (MIPS). In more detail here.

2016: Announcement of new processors

On January 26, 2016 it became known of terms of an exit of the next generation of ARM chips of Baikal Electronics and also a name of the partner of the Russian company in development of software for the equipment based on new processors.

According to Kommersant with reference to the message of Baikal Electronics, the company developed "road map" on production of new microprocessors. To the second half of 2016 it is going to release engineering samples of the 28-nanometer eight-nuclear microchip Baikal-M containing a 64-bit core of ARM Cortex-2679656E3B7 and intended for desktop computers and the built-in systems.

2015: Lenovo intends to release the PC based on the Baikal chip

On September 15, 2015 it became known of plans Lenovo to release computers on the Russian Baikal processor. The companies HP Acer are not going to do the same also yet.

According to Vedomosti with reference to the CEO of Lenovo in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe Gleb Mishin, the company conducts negotiations with T-Platforms on possible use in the products of the chips released by child Baikal Electronics.

Lenovo conducts negotiations on use of the Russian processors

The top manager did not begin to call parts, terms and the amount of possible deliveries of processors, having referred to the nondisclosure agreement of information. At the same time Mishin noted that he expects trust of state customers to the equipment of Lenovo with the Russian processors that should help vendor with competitive struggle.

The representative of Baikal Electronics Andrey Malafeev reported that the company hopes for high demand from outside not only the states, but also private clients. Malafeev did not begin to comment on negotiations with Lenovo.

Competitors of Lenovo are not going to release computers based on the Russian processors yet. So, the CEO of Acer in Russia Denis Kutnikov said that the company does not conduct negotiations with Baikal Electronics, however does not exclude them in the future if the equipment on this component base is demanded by the market. The representative of HP Ekaterina Trofimova announced lack of plans of the producer to create computers on chips of the Russian production.^[1]

2014: Development of Baikal

In June, 2014 creation of a series of the Russian multi-core processors under the name Baikal is reported by Kommersant with reference to materials. 8-core Baikal M and M/S processors topology of 28 nanometers and with a frequency of 2 GHz for use in personal computers and microservers should become the first products in a line. Processors on a 64-bit core of Cortex of A-57 of the British company ARM will be under construction. As the operating system for all solutions it is supposed to use the free software of Linux. The release of the 8-core Baikal processor is planned for the beginning of 2015, and at the end of 2016 Minpromtorg planned release of even more powerful, 16-core server processor topology of 16 nanometers.

By request Ministry of Industry and Trade development of the microchip Baikal is conducted by the company"Baikal Electronics", subsidiary company supercomputers of JSC T-Platforms developer. Financing of the project is conducted through the joint venture of fund of infrastructure and educational programs Rusnano and T-Platforms "T-nano". The press service of Rusnano reported in June, 2014, "T-nano" received 1.2 billion rubles, however, how many from them it was the share of Baikal, did not open. The United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation participates in the project also (a MIC; enters in"Rostec"). The MIC is going to create on the basis of Baikal switches, routers, ADP equipment, the representative of corporation told. Besides, in materials of Minpromtorg it is reported that interest in the project was shown also by the companies Depo Computers, Kraftway and group "Aquarius". It is supposed that Baikal will be delivered in authorities and state companies. Annually they buy about 700 thousand personal devices for $500 million and 300 thousand servers for $800 million, estimate in Minpromtorg. The total amount of this market — about 5 million devices worth $3.5 billion.

In Russia microchips of 90 nanometers which are released by the Zelenograd plant "Mikron" under control of AFK "Sistema" are produced serially. The line of different microprocessors under the name "Elbrus" is also released by MCST. There are no capacities for production of processors of 28 nanometers in Russia at the moment, notes a source of Kommersant in the industry. Such chips are made now by world leaders of Qualcomm, Samsung, Altera for the smartphones Samsung, Sony, Motorola, HTC and also for iPhone 5S and iPad Air.

What investment volume will be required on development and production Baikal, at this time it was unknown. For example, in 2013 the Intel corporation spent on R&D $10.6 billion.

"If at design of the processor the main core and IP blocks were licensed, design of the body was ordered, then taking into account license fees the project could cost tens of millions of dollars without manufacturing cost" — the representative of JSC NIIME i Mikron Alexey Dianov estimates.

However financing can be not the only problem of the Baikal project. From March, 2013 to January, 2014 T-Platforms could not export element base as they were included in the list of the organizations and persons acting contrary to national security and the foreign policy interests of the USA. Participation in development of Baikal can entail new sanctions, the president of Assistance of the Microelectronic Industry non-profit partnership Karina Abagyan considers.

"This project will probably be able to compete with solutions of the western vendors thanks to emphasis on information security. Therefore the enterprises of defense industry first of all will be interested in devices based on these processors that can cause new sanctions from the USA. As Baikal processors, apparently, will be made abroad, implementation of sanctions can paralyze completely the project" — Karina Abagyan concludes.

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