Motherboards and computer systems based mostly on the Loongson 3A6000 processor at the moment are out there

Made in China: Chinese language firm Loongson Expertise claims to have developed its new processor know-how with out copying something from Western counterparts. The Loongson 3A6000 chip can now be bought with a motherboard or as a part of an entire system, providing an opportunity to raised perceive what the {hardware} can really accomplish.

AliExpress lately began providing new merchandise based mostly on the Loongson 3A6000, a mysterious pc processor developed by the Chinese language fabless firm Loongson Expertise. Often known as “Godson,” these new chips are reportedly on par with four-year-old CPUs made by Intel and AMD, though we nonetheless know little or no about how the chips really work or how they carry out with present PC software program.

Merchandise on supply embody two motherboards geared up with the Loongson 3A6000 processor, every with various connectivity options and growth capabilities. First, we’ve got the Loongson 3A6000 7A2000 “Mainboard Laptop Board,” which features a 3A6000 CPU with a most frequency of two.5GHz.

The DTX motherboard and the chip alone value $372.91. clients can add DDR4 reminiscence (as much as two slots), growth playing cards, and even a discrete GPU. The Loongson 3A6000 7A2000 board helps a most of three PCIe playing cards, with an x16 slot, an x8 slot, and an x4 slot. USB speeds go as much as USB 3.0, whereas storage choices embody NVMe or SATA units.

AliExpress choices for the Loongson 3A6000 7A2000 board embody completely different “units” with various DRAM reminiscence sizes, native storage, and built-in or discrete graphics. The identical applies to the XC-LS3A6M “Core Board,” which provides higher growth capabilities whereas costing barely greater than the 7A2000 board ($389.93). The XC-LS3A6M motherboard contains the identical variety of PCIe slots, whereas additionally offering an additional Ethernet port and a header for a further Kind-C USB 3.2 port.

The Loongson 3A6000 chip is predicated on the LoongArch instruction set structure (ISA), the newest iteration of the Godson ISA first launched in 2022 and geared up with the “LA664” core know-how. The poorly documented ISA is usually derived from MIPS, a RISC-based structure created by a US firm and additional developed by Loongson Expertise with design selections taken from each MIPS and RISC-V.

The Chinese language company claims that the single-core efficiency of the LA664 cores inside the 3A6000 chip can compete with AMD’s Zen 3 structure and Intel’s Tiger Lake (eleventh Gen) structure launched in 2020. The CPU is supposedly fabricated utilizing a 14nm or 12nm manufacturing course of, and rumors recommend that the know-how is on par with Intel’s tenth Gen Core processors. A 3A6000-based pc ought to have the ability to run each ARM and x86 software program natively, because of tons of of directions designed to translate code from each ISAs.