Baikal Electronics, a Russian CPU developer, has produced and sold 85,000 of its processors since its founding in 2012, with the goal of increasing production to meet domestic demand for personal computers and other devices. According to CNews, most of the 85,000 units were low-end Baikal-T processors designed for embedded applications, which were primarily sourced before 2022. By 2019, Baikal had delivered 17,000 processors to the Russian market. At that time, the company operated from a single office with 81 employees. Despite facing significant challenges, including bankruptcy in mid-2023, Baikal expanded to four offices and doubled its workforce to 200 employees by the end of 2024. To put this achievement into perspective, the global tech industry shipped 262.7 million client PCs, 144 million tablets, and 1.239 billion smartphones in 2024, each containing a processor from major brands like AMD, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, and others. The 85,000 processors from Baikal include three main families: Baikal-T1: A dual-core 32-bit MIPS P5600 processor running at 1.20 GHz with a power consumption of 5W, produced using 28nm technology. These chips were primarily used in embedded and telecommunications applications. Baikal-M: An eight-core Arm Cortex-A57 processor clocked at 1.50 GHz, featuring Arm NEON, an eight-core Arm Mali-T628 GPU, 8MB L3 cache, and 35W power consumption, also made using 28nm technology. This processor was designed for client PCs. Baikal-S: A powerful 48-core Arm Cortex-A75 processor with six 72-bit DDR4 memory interfaces, utilizing N16FFC technology. All of these processors were initially manufactured at TSMC in Taiwan and imported into Russia over several years. However, in early 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan, the United States, and Europe imposed stringent sanctions on Russia. The Taiwanese government, in particular, implemented strict export controls, limiting Russian companies like Baikal to procuring only 32-bit CPUs with a maximum frequency of 25 MHz and performance up to 5 GFLOPS. This restriction effectively excluded modern technology, including the Baikal-T1, which has a performance of approximately 9.6 FP32 GFLOPS. Baikal’s efforts to circumvent these sanctions have been largely unsuccessful. CNews reported that Baikal-T1 chips were confiscated while being transported from Latvia to Belarus. Additionally, Andrey Evdokimov, CEO of Baikal, revealed in an interview that 150,000 Baikal-M processors were seized in Taiwan and a subsequent order for 15,000 Baikal-S units was canceled. Despite these setbacks, Baikal continues to push forward. The company began mass-producing its own microcontroller in April, though specific technical details or specifications were not disclosed. In the coming months, Baikal plans to start manufacturing the Baikal-L processor, designed for mobile devices such as laptops and tablets, which will help the company focus on the client PC market again. Additionally, Baikal is preparing to produce the Baikal-S2 CPU, intended for data centers. Both the Baikal-L and Baikal-S2 processors are expected to be manufactured by SMIC, a chip foundry based in China. These new developments are part of Baikal’s broader strategy to achieve technological independence and meet the growing domestic demand for advanced CPUs in various industries. The company’s persistence and adaptability in the face of international sanctions highlight its commitment to advancing Russian semiconductor capabilities. For the latest updates on Baikal Electronics and other tech news, follow Tom's Hardware on Google News and click the Follow button to stay informed.