Chips and the Open-Source Secret | Isabella Borshoff, The Wire China

As China pushes for semiconductor self-sufficiency, it’s found an unlikely ally: an international foundation dedicated to open source technology, with its origins in California’s libertarian computer culture. When it comes to a core chip element known as “instruction set architecture,” the vital semiconductor component that allows a chip’s hardware and software to communicate, the global market is locked up by two companies: the U.S.’s Intel, which dominates computing, and Arm, a Japanese-owned, U.K.-based company that supplies almost all smartphone chip architecture. These firms license their technology to chip design companies for huge sums. But that could soon change.

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