The Chinese company Loongson obtained a license to produce processors based on the AMD Zen architecture. This, at the time, was quite controversial due to the tensions that existed and exist between China and the United States. But now we are in another situation, much more complex and possibly an attempted scam.
China “counterfeiting” processors
PowerLeader is a manufacturer of processors from China, which surely does not sound like anything to you. It is normal, since Chinese companies produce to sell only within the Asian giant. They just announced the Powerstar P3-01105 processor that would use the Storm Core architecture. As indicated, this chip would have exceptional performance.
As revealed, this Powerstar P3-01105 has 4 cores and eight threadsworking at a base frequency of 3.7 GHz. Also, it is interesting to mention that the packaging is brutally similar to that of Intel processors. This makes you think that it really is an Intel processor and therefore name and specificationsit would be a Intel Core i3-10105.
Looking at the name, it brutally coincides with that of Intel, but changing some order numbers. They also change the letter “i” to the letter “P”. Also, since both packages are the same, we can almost be sure that they have erased the Intel data and silkscreened the new name.
To our knowledge, Intel has no association with the Chinese company PowerLeader. We can say more Intel has never allowed anyone to market its processors under any other name. Only the company designs its processors and manufactures them, although they are now produced by TSMC as well.
The “manufacturer” PowerLeader indicates that it is designed specifically for desktop users. He also says that it is ideal for industry, government, education, finance and other sectors. The sales target is 1.5 million units each year, quite an ambitious target.
In addition, the Chairman of Baode Group, PowerLeader’s parent company, has said that this is only the first launch. They are going to launch more processors and they aspire to be the main provider of solutions for the Asian giant.
What does Intel say about this?
At the moment, it seems that the company has not ruled on the matter. If it were a fake or attempted scam, it would be hard to know how far they can go. Keep in mind that Chinese counterfeiting laws are practically non-existent.
We assume that they have simply erased Intel’s screen printing and have put theirs, with the whole face. They haven’t changed the processor heatsink, something they could have done with no problem.
Intel may not speak up and if they do, they may not be too harsh. We are talking about 1.5 million processors sold, which is a lot of money in these difficult market times. Although, as is logical, they will not be very amused by this sloppy name change.
We imagine that some youtuber will get hold of one of these processors and will try to install it on an Intel motherboard. If this happens and it manages to turn on without problems, we will have confirmation of the “scam”.
