Russia acquired processor developer Elbrus through Rosatom
MOSCOW, RUSSIA — The largest technological corporation in the field of nuclear energy created a subsidiary NPO “Critical Information Systems” [NPO KIS] and it acquired 100% of the shares of a local developer of microprocessors – MCST Elbrus JSC.
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An MCST shareholder source explained that the nuclear industry leader has no market interest in the company. On the contrary, industry representatives said the state-owned corporation was acting on behalf of the Russian government. In this way, Moscow is trying to save the important for Russia MCST Elbrus JSC, which found itself in a difficult financial situation after the imposition of sanctions.
The fact is that all Russian processor developers from MCST and Baikal Electronics to STC Module fell under the sanctions of the US Department of Commerce [US Department of Industry and Commerce]. At the request of the United States, all companies in the world engaged in contract manufacturing of chips and processors are required to immediately stop the production of chips from Russian design centers for circuit engineering and microelectronics.
For 30 years, the following situation has developed: almost all players in the microprocessor and video chip market have switched to the so-called Fabless production model. This means that all the famous US manufacturers of processors, Very Large Scale Integration [VLSI], and graphics chips [AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Radeon, Altera, etc.] are companies without a factory.
I.e. – they independently develop the circuit of the chip, the core, various technical solutions, and the architecture of the future product. However, production is ordered according to the provided process drawings. Most of the manufacturing is done by the Taiwanese semiconductor factory TSMC.
The problem is that all chip developers in Russia are also Fabless, which means that they produce their developments in the same TSMC, and Taiwan, as you know, is under the control of the US.
Rosatom’s acquisition of 100% of the shares of MCST Elbrus JSC does not mean that Russia will immediately start production. After all, most of the Russian chips are implemented on equipment at 28-16 nm, while in Russia there are only 180-130 and experimentally at 90 nm, not to mention the production of 300 mm silicon wafers.
While Russian processors are currently being shipped to home equipment manufacturers, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of processors are still stored in warehouses or TSMC. However, when will the first Russian-made processors and microchips appear – this a good question to which no one knows the answer yet.
This is where Rosatom comes in. Russian analysts suggest that the inclusion of the state corporation means a step forward for future production in Russia of photolithography equipment and the construction of new semiconductor plants in the country, which in the era of sanctions are very important.
However, it appears that Russia will not be able to use newly produced chips locally during the war in Ukraine. A future factory for microchips and processors will take a long time. According to some experts, if this happens in the optimal time frame, this means up to two years. Experts say Moscow’s idea is primarily about starting a future Russian microchip and processor industry.
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