Leading semiconductor analyst says AMD should be investigated for ‘treason’ over availability of restricted chips in China

Leading semiconductor analyst says AMD should be investigated for 'treason' over availability of restricted chips in China

Therefore, while the XCZU47DR is technically aimed at civil, commercial, and industrial applications, the chip is a dual-use component featuring a 3A001.a.14 ECCN classification under the U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) and therefore its exporting, re-exporting, or transferring normally requires a BIS export license to non-allied destinations (e.g., China) on anti-terrorist and national security concerns. This means that any shipment to China requires a license, but in practical reality, that license will almost certainly be denied. However, there is a license exception that allows shipping such items to commercial companies from the Group B countries , which means legitimate exports to dozens of states from where such goods could get to China illegally.

This might explain how Puzhi obtained its XCZU47DR devices, but it does not explain the enormous apparent difference between the prices available to Chinese and American buyers. The $1,000 figure, however, is Patel's reported price for the chip rather than a publicly advertised retail offer.

Xilinx, which AMD later acquired, introduced its 3 rd Generation Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC family, including the XCZU47DR, in February 2019, and the devices reached production status in 2020, meaning that they have been on the market for almost six years now. Xilinx and then AMD have sold the unit to tens, if not hundreds, of companies in different countries, so determining the origin of the units that Puzhi has might be difficult.

It should be noted that lead times for XCZU47DR at various resellers like Avnet and DigiKey are 40 to 52 weeks, which indicates that the components are in high demand in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, Puzhi claims it can ship its system based on the RFSoC on November 6, 2026.

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Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

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