Chinese chipmaker, Loongson, recently announced its latest CPU. It’s called the Loongson 3A5000 and unlike other CPUs on the commercial market, the processor was built from the ground up and uses a novel instruction set architecture (ISA) design.
Officially, the Loongson 3A5000 is known as the LoongArch; the architecture design is nearly similar to that of the x86 and ARM’s, but as mentioned earlier, what actually makes this CPU special is that, because it is built from scratch by Loongson, the Chinese chipmaker is therefore able to skirt around applying for foreign licenses that are usually required to manufacturer CPUs.
Specs-wise, the 3A5000 has a quad-core layout, running between 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz. In addition, it also comes equipped with two DDR4-3200 memory controllers, a dedicated encryption module, and four HyperTransport 3.0 SMP controllers.
As for its performance, Loongson says that the LoongArch is about 20% more efficient than its predecessor, and in the SPEC CPU2006 test, the CPU is reportedly on par with 1st generation AMD Ryzen CPUs and 6th generation Intel Skylake Core series processors.
Loongson’s new CPU is just one of several examples of a Chinese brand leading the charge on creating and making homegrown CPU architecture, all in an effort to help its semiconductor industry in becoming less dependent on the sales and use of foreign brands, chief among them including ARM, AMD, and Intel. While its latest product pales in comparison to what these brands already have to offer, it’s also clear that it is bringing the brand that much closer to China’s dream of self-sufficiency in the industry.
(Source: CNTechPost, Techspot)
