Loongson is a major player in China and has been making domestic chips for 22 years with the aim of providing affordable alternatives to Intel and AMD products. Historically, however, there has always been a noticeable performance gap between homegrown CPUs and those from outside China.
Now, Fast technology Loongson has been working hard behind the scenes to close that gap and is preparing to launch a trio of fourth-generation CPUs, collectively known as the ‘Three Musketeers’.
Loongson’s first-generation chips include the 3A1000 and 3B1500, followed by the second-generation 3A2000 and 3A3000, and then the third-generation 3A4000, 3A5000 and 3C5000/S/D. The fourth-generation chips are the Loongson 3A6000, 3B6000M and 3C6000 .
Tock-Tock2-Tick
“Loongson follows a development principle based on independent core IP research to improve the performance of single-core general purpose applications. It adopts a strategy similar to Intel’s former ‘Tick-Tock’ development approach, where ‘Tick’ refers to process iteration and ‘Tock’ to architecture and design optimization.” Fast technology’s report added.
For this new generation, Loongson has adopted a ‘Tock-Tock2-Tick’ approach, meaning ‘two rounds of design optimizations before a process iteration’, with the aim of maximizing the performance of existing mature processes, which are roughly comparable to the international 7nm -level. .
The Loongson 3A6000 is already available, but very little is currently known about the 3B6000M other than the fact that it will integrate GPGPU graphics and computer cores. The 3C6000 server processor has reportedly returned for pilot testing and is expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2024. What’s particularly interesting is that Loongson developed improved versions of the Three Musketeers – the 3A6600, 3B6600 and 3C6600 – as part of the second ‘Tock. “
The 3B6600, scheduled to be taped out in the first half of next year, will also reportedly integrate GPGPU graphics and computing cores like the 3B6000M.
Loongson’s fourth-generation CPUs will integrate high-speed PCIe interfaces, “enabling connections to dedicated graphics cards, network cards, RAID array cards and more, with a weak Southbridge connected via PCIe.” Fast technology added.