Russia's Baikal-S: A 48-Core Chip It Can No Longer Manufacture

Baikal-S: The Last Russian Processor with Modern Lithography

Russia can display the blueprint of its best processor, but cannot manufacture it. In October 2022, the first microscopic images of the Baikal-S BE-S1000 interior emerged, revealing the uncomfortable truth about the 48-core chip Moscow marketed for servers and high-performance computing: the design is ambitious, but the factory is on another continent. Specialist Fritzchens Fritz photographed the chip after receiving a sample via a third party, while Locuza annotated the layout function by function.

The phrase that best captures the moment does not come from a Western analyst. It comes from the photographer himself: "probably one of the last Russian processors with a modern process node." The summary goes further: it may be the last Baikal chip seen "for a long time or forever." A technical obituary in every sense, with the body still warm.

What Is Inside the Baikal-S BE-S1000?

The BE-S1000 antiestéticatures 48 Arm Cortex-A75 cores running at a base frequency of 2.0 GHz and a boost of 2.5 GHz, with a TDP of 120 watts. It was manufactured by TSMC using its 16-nanometer node. Surrounding the core clusters, a cache block connects everything, and six 72-bit DDR4-3200 PHYs encircle the assembly alongside the memory controllers.

In terms of I/O, it does not fall short: five PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces configured as 4x4, three of which support CCIX 1.0. And an unusual detail, a proprietary RISC-V core for management and secure boot sequences. On paper, the company promised performance comparable to Intel's Xeon Skylake or AMD's first-generation Zen EPYC. On paper, indeed.

The Bottleneck Is Not the Design, It Is the Foundry

This is where the narrative breaks. A chip is not made with a pretty blueprint: it is made with lithography, and modern lithography is in very few hands. When the images were published, Russia was already under sanctions—some also point to Taiwan, which would close the door to TSMC—and ordering advanced nodes ceased to be a future option.

The best publicly known capability in the country was 55 nanometers nodes at Crocus Nanoelectronics; speculation existed about 32 nm "opaquely and without supporting source." Domestic development exists but is embryonic. At the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, work is underway on the first national lithography facility, with a demonstration unit that developers themselves call a "prototype of a prototype." The rest of the optimism relies on third parties: it is claimed that Chinese foundry SMIC has been secretly producing at 7 nm since 2021.

From Chip to Backdoor: Who Controls the Hardware We Buy?

The case drags along a more uncomfortable question: if even a resource-rich state cannot manufacture its own silicon, what guarantees does anyone have regarding what they buy? The focus shifted from the chip to the firmware. Intel processors include a closed internal operating system—a modified MINIX—over which the end user has no control, and the discovery of two undocumented x86 instructions capable of modifying processor microcode has been documented. This is the ability to alter the machine's internal state below the operating system, leaving no trace for the device owner.

The underlying problem is not Russian: it is dependency. The same logic lies behind the US ban on selling ASML equipment to Chinese buyers, and the mandatory use of Microsoft's corporate network in educational administration, where much sensitive information ends up synchronized on foreign servers. Whoever controls the silicon and the software governing it also controls those who use it.

Terminal Collapse or Simple Delay?

Views clash. One school argues that the Baikal-S is a snapshot of the end: without access to advanced nodes, the Russian electronics industry spins in older generations while the rest advances, and designs accumulate without a factory to materialize them. Another responds that design survives, talent remains, and embargoes are bypassed with patience and premium prices.

In the middle lies an uncomfortable realization: the race for nanometers has not prevented processors from consuming energy like appliances and overheating, so real advantage is measured worse than it seems. And those who cannot manufacture learn to buy through the back door.

With available information, it is likely that the Baikal-S will remain the visible ceiling of a generation: a good blueprint without a factory to sustain it. If Russian lithography ever wakes up, it will be with a lag that today no one can quantify. Meanwhile, the annotated blueprint will continue circulating as what it is: the autopsy of a chip that arrived on time in a world that stopped selling it.