Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group, also known as FMSH, has designed a clone of the AMD Embedded (previously Xilinx) Kintex 7 325T FPGA found in some boards and modules in mainland China.
We are used to seeing clones or fakes of the STM32 microcontrollers, but somebody called “whatever” on Twitter noted a full-featured board based on a clone of the Kintex-7 325T FPGA with 326,080 LUTS and 16 transceivers.
Twitter users were quick to point out the board was based on Fudan Micro JFM7K325T, and that it was indeed a clone of the Kintex 7 325T FPGA. The company describes itself as a “domestic leading company specializing in the design, development, production (testing), and system solution provision of super-large-scale integration”, but the company’s website does not have any information about the JFM7K325T chip.
I could not find the board above online, but I still found MagicChips’ MC-JFM7K325T core board based on Fudan Micro JFM7 series FPGA JFM7K325T FPGA with 128 Mbit Quad-SPI Flash memory, 8GB eMMC storage, 8Gbit DDR3, 16 pairs of user-configurable high-speed serial transceivers, and so on. There’s also a small video board based on the chip, but I could not determine its name.
We got further confirmation the FUDAN Micro FPGA is a clone of the Kintex 7 325T in a policy brief entitled “Silicon Twist – Managing the Chinese Military’s Access to AI Chips” published in June 2022 by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology think tank based at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a table including several Xilinx/AMD Embedded and NVIDIA chips and the JFM7K325T being clearly marked as a clone of the Kintex-7 FPGA.
I could not find any JFM7K325T FPGA board or module for sale online, and it’s likely those can’t be legally exported out of China. We should expect more of those clones as sanctions related to semiconductors ramp up. [Update: there are some “KC705 FPGA” such as this one for $460 or another for $340 that are supposed to be based on the JFM7K325T FPGA. See comments section.]
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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You can find a couple on aliexpress when looking for the “KC705 FPGA” selling at around $350 (instead of the usual $2500-3000).
Thanks. I’ve updated the post with a couple of links at the end. But they don’t specify it’s the Fudan Micro FPGA and just claim it’s a Kintex 7 325T instead.
Fudan(at least for FPGAs) is likely a rebrand, as nobody would want a random FPGA from some obscure company like that. I think likely refurbished or similar.
It is not a rebrand. The bitstream file is not 100% compatible.
These are most likely genuine Xilinx. They are nowhere that expensive if you buy them in bulk.
May be chip refurbishment too. From old hardware.
Is this actually a clone or just a rebadged? Like what that Chinese Powerstar company did.
The stm32 clones as an example aren’t always 100% compatible with the original stm32 parts, they might have changed registers or some things. For FPGAs, that would basically kill the point of doing a clone, it would just be faster and better to develop your own and your toolchain.