The computer processor market is currently centered around two large companies: Intel and AMD, but other smaller “players” are also trying to do so. It is worth paying attention to the Chinese designers – Loongson boasted of its top model equipped with 32 cores.
The Chinese brand was loud in 2008 – the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that it would develop processors under the Loongson brand (used interchangeably with Goodson), to compete with the then Intel and AMD models. The ads turned out to be “a little” too promising, and the units went into oblivion. However, we return to the topic, because recently scientists from China boasted of newer models.
Chinese 32-core server processor appears
We are talking about the Loongson 3D5000 model, which is essentially a combination of the 16-core Loongson 3C5000 processors. Interestingly, the manufacturer chose a chip-based design (the production of such a module was carried out by the Chinese SMIC – an impressive achievement, since the manufacturer has much less experience than the Taiwanese TSMC).
The specs look very promising. There are 32 LA464 cores based on the proprietary LoongArch architecture, 64MB of L3 cache and a four-channel DDR4-3200 memory controller. Moreover, it is possible to create 2 and 4 processor configurations here.
Loongson reportedly recently completed CPU validation tests that confirmed the chip’s power consumption. At 2.0GHz it is supposed to consume 130W, while at 2.2GHz the power consumption goes up to 170W. The design is in the form of the LGA-4129 system.
The manufacturer boasts that a single 3D model is about 400 points in the SPEC CPU2006 benchmark. Collected chips are said to offer around 800 points. The ads also say about 1600 points for a 4 processor configuration.
Chinese Loongson as an alternative to Intel and AMD?
Can Chinese processors compete with Intel and AMD? Sure, you can’t count on competitive performance against the latest units like the Xeon Sapphire Rapids or Epyc Genoa, but in a way it’s a choice to be independent from Western equipment. However, recipients will have to be patient. The first samples of the Loongson 3D5000 processors are expected to ship in the first half of 2023, but commercial shipments will follow at a later date.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
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