A new generation of domestic chips Loongson 3A6000 was released, Hu Weiwu: China is expected to solve the problem of chip "stuck neck" |
Titanium Media App learned that at the 2023 Loongson Product Release and User Conference held on November 28, the domestic chip company Loongson Zhongke (688047.SH) officially released a new generation of general-purpose CPU processor Loongson 3A6000, printer main control chip Loongson 2P0500 and other products.
The new Loongson 3A6000 processor adopts Loongson's independent instruction system LoongArch, which is the first product of Loongson's fourth-generation microarchitecture, with a frequency of 2.5GHz, integrating 4 newly developed high-performance LA664 processor cores, 8 logic cores on the whole chip, supporting multi-threading technology (SMT2), dual-channel DDR4-3200, greatly improving efficiency through design optimization (exponentially improved), and improving the support for binary translation of software and hardware collaboration.
Loongson said that the 3A6000 has excellent performance at 2.5GHz, and compared with the previous generation 3A5000, the single-thread general-purpose processing performance is increased by 60%, and the multi-process general-purpose processing performance is increased by 100%. Based on the test results, the overall performance of the 3A6000 processor is comparable to that of Intel's 10th Gen Core quad-core processor, which was launched in 2020. It is expected that more than 50 companies such as ASUS and Tongfang Computer will release desktop computers, notebooks, boards, storage and other products based on 3A6000.
Shi Huikang, deputy director of the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the launch of the 3A6000 processor shows that the domestic CPU has reached a new height in terms of independent controllability and product performance, and also proves that China has the ability to make first-class products in the self-developed CPU architecture.
Hu Weiwu, chairman of Loongson Zhongke, said that Loongson 3A6000 has embarked on a path of improving performance based on mature technology and design optimization, and the performance of self-developed CPU can fully catch up with and exceed the international mainstream product level. At present, driven by the policy-based market, the independent system based on the dragon architecture has been basically formed, but all links are still relatively weak. To this end, Loongson Zhongke has openly licensed the Loongson CPU core IP and Dragon architecture instruction system to partners to support their development of SoC chip products based on Loongson CPU core IP and Dragon architecture instruction system.
"A lone branch is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom in spring. Hu Weiwu stressed that he expects that by 2027, the problem of China's chip "stuck neck" should be basically solved.
"This is the mission of our generation of 'Loongson people'. However, there is a problem if we want to do it ourselves, because Loongson is the most autonomous, and without a software ecosystem, it is definitely not as good as foreign ecosystems like Wintel and Arm. Therefore, we must transform the advantages of autonomy into performance and ecological advantages, and through long-term accumulation and iteration, we will be among the world's leaders, and we will be ahead of the Americans, which will be good. Hu Weiwu said.
Hu Weiwu, chairman of Loongson Zhongke
Loongson Zhongke was established in 2008, aiming to rely on the independent research and development technology of "Loongson" for more than ten years, and is committed to building an independent ecosystem independent of Wintel (Windows + Intel) and AA (Android + Arm) ecology, and industrializing the R&D results of "Loongson" processors. On June 24, 2022, Loongson Zhongke successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
Up to now, Loongson Zhongke has become a general-purpose processor design company with its own instruction system LoongArch (Dragon architecture), fully mastering the core computer technologies such as CPU instruction system, processor IP core, operating system, etc., and creating an independent and open software and hardware ecology and information industry system. The company's main business is the development, sales and service of processors and supporting chips, and the main products and services include processors and supporting chip products and basic software and hardware solutions.
Based on the two main lines of information system and industrial control system, Loongson Zhongke has carried out industrial ecological construction in the fields of network security, office and business informatization, industrial control and Internet of Things, and its series of products have been widely used in e-government, energy, transportation, finance, telecommunications, education and other industries.
According to the latest financial report released by Loongson Zhongke on October 26, in the third quarter of 2023, the company's operating income was 86.4188 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 36.53%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -103 million yuan (loss). In the first three quarters of 2023 (January-September), Loongson Zhongke's revenue was 394 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.49%, the net profit attributable to the parent company was -207 million yuan, an increase of 383.24% year-on-year, the net profit deducted from non-attributable to the parent company reached -303 million yuan, and the proportion of R&D investment increased from 43.77% in the same period last year to 78.44% this year.
From the perspective of product line, Loongson Zhongke has mainly developed Loongson No. 1, Loongson No. 2, Loongson No. 3 three series of processor chips and bridge chips, and according to the different application fields, it is divided into industrial control chips (Loongson No. 1 and No. 2) and information chips (Loongson No. 3), which are widely used in network security communications, energy, transportation, e-government, finance, telecommunications, education and other fields. Among them, in the field of informatization, dozens of domestic machine brands have launched desktops, laptops and other products based on Loongson CPU.
In August this year, Loongson Zhongke announced that the new generation of quad-core processor Loongson 3A6000 based on the Dragon architecture was successfully taped out.
At this meeting, Hu Weiwu said that the main IP cores of Loongson CPU are independently developed. According to comprehensive public testing, the overall performance of the Loongson 3A6000 processor has reached the level of mainstream products in the market, which is comparable to the 10th generation Core quad-core processor of Intel's 10nm process.
Specifically, according to the test results of Saixi Laboratory of China Electronics Standardization Institute, Loongson 3A6000 has a single-thread fixed/floating-point score of 43.1/54.6 points for SPEC CPU 2006 base and 155/140 points for multi-process fixed/floating-point scores at 2.5GHz frequency, and a single-threaded (rate1) fixed/floating-point score of 5.05/ for SPEC CPU 2017 base, respectively. 7.78 points, the single-process multi-threading (speed) fixed/floating-point scores reached 6.66/18.1 points, the multi-process (rate8) fixed/floating-point scores reached 21.3/21.0 points, the measured bandwidth of Stream exceeded 42GB/s, and the measured Unixbench scores exceeded 7400 points.
"After more than 20 years of development, Loongson CPU and OS have completed the technical 'make-up', and the basic software ecology based on the Dragon architecture has been basically completed. In the future, Loongson will start a new journey of ecological construction. Hu Weiwu said that the fundamental way out of China's information industry lies in building an independent ecosystem independent of the X86 and ARM systems.
In addition, Hu Weiwu also announced the new product 3C6000, the second generation of GPGPU (universal graphics processing unit) technology self-developed graphics processor LG200, high-speed interconnection products Dragon Chain and other information.
Among them, Loongson 3C6000 uses a single silicon wafer with 16 cores and 32 threads, the general processing performance is doubled, the memory adopts DDR4-3200×4, and the memory access bandwidth is doubled compared with the previous generation 3C5000, and the silicon area is reduced by about 15%~20% through optimized design, the cost is reduced, and the cost performance is greatly improved. The 3C6000 achieves high-speed interconnection between chips through DragonChain technology, the LG200 GPU chip supports graphics acceleration, scientific computing acceleration, AI acceleration and other functions, and the DragonChain breaks through high-speed inter-chip interconnection technology, benchmarks key core technologies such as NVLink, CXL, cracks chiplets, and improves bandwidth efficiency.
"The 3C6000 is a major breakthrough after the 3A6000. Hu Weiwu also talked about the 3B6000 tape-out next year, and he said that he would strive to improve the performance per GHz by another 20%-30%, close to or reach the level of Apple's CPU.
Hu Weiwu emphasized that the Loongson "Three Musketeers" composed of the desktop processor Loongson 3A6000, the server processor Loongson 3C6000 under development and the mobile desktop terminal processor 2K3000 have a certain degree of open market competitiveness.
On November 28, Hu Weiwu said that looking back on the past 20 years, "Loongson" has experienced a "wave" development stage, including technical support and policy-based market transformation and upgrading. Now, during the period from 2022 to 2024, the company has entered the second round of market adjustment, and then Loongson hopes to gain a "place" in an open and fully competitive market.
Hu Weiwu said that in the fourth quarter of this year and the whole year of 2024, Loongson still needs a policy market (government and enterprise end customers), and then this market will be opened, such as cooperation ecology, sale of Loongson CPU IP core open licensing, etc. It is reported that the advantage of Loongson CPU core IP open licensing is that the threshold is low and royalty-free, and 10 partners at this press conference use Loongson CPU core to sign chip research and development contracts.
Talking about the topic of RISC-V, ARM and Dragon architecture, Hu Weiwu said that the open source RISC-V architecture is overly open, the ecosystem is fragmented, and the software is incompatible. At present, the use of existing directives (2000+) is open, and the self-added directives must comply with technical specifications and can only be used through open libraries. As for the Future Dragon architecture, as long as you sign the technical agreement, you can obtain a permanent license.
At the end of the speech, Hu Weiwu emphasized that the Loongson team is now building a new technology system independent of the x86 system and the Arm system through the independent research and development of the underlying technology. Standing at a new historical starting point, Loongson Zhongke will continue to adhere to the work style of self-reliance and hard work, continue to adhere to the ideological method of seeking truth from facts, and move forward bravely on the journey of building an independent information technology system and industrial ecology.
"We're moving forward. We are doing something extremely glorious and great that our predecessors have never done. Our purpose must be achieved. Our goal will be achieved. Hu Weiwu said.
(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, author: Lin Zhijia)