Recently, the world's first zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) SOC chip (Accseal Leo Chip) developed by Shenzhen Zhixin Huaxi Information Technology, a start-up enterprise of the transformation of knowledge achievements of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University, has been successfully taped out at one time, with completely independent intellectual property rights, breaking the situation that there is no ZKP acceleration chip in the industry, improving the computing efficiency of ZKP and greatly reducing the cost, providing underlying computing power support for the wide application of ZKP and the development of the digital economy.
Based on the 12nm advanced process, the Accseal Leo Chip can perform complex multiscalar multiplication and number theory transformation operations, support programmable design, and support accelerated operations of post-quantum cryptography, multi-party secure computing and federated learning, with chip performance more than 1,000 times faster than traditional CPUs and 10 times lower cost. At present, the engineering sample test has been completed, and mass production and marketing can be achieved in the first quarter of 2024.
Academician Yao Chi-chih, Dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University and the only Chinese winner of the Turing Award, congratulated the world's first zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) SoC chip on its success in tape-out for the first time. The launch of ZKP acceleration chips provides a strong computing power support for the data element market, and the best departments or industry alliances can jointly use zero-knowledge proof technology to achieve the coexistence of supervision and privacy, verify the compliance and fairness of the use of data elements, and ensure data privacy and enterprise confidentiality.
According to Gao Mingyu, co-founder of Zhixin Huaxi and assistant professor of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University, the project first originated from the scientific research project led by Academician Yao Qizhi, bringing together the wisdom and sweat of many mathematics and computer students such as Tsinghua Yao Ban. At the same time, he will continue to lead the Zhixin Huaxi team to deepen the field of privacy computing, overcome technical difficulties, and provide technical support for the development of the digital economy.
Photo courtesy of Tsinghua University.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Lei Jia.
Edited by Tan Weiping.