Chinese chipmaker Loongson is reportedly all set to launch its first 14nm CPUs, namely the 3A5000 and 3C5000 with four and sixteen cores, respectively. The former comes with an operating clock of 2.5GHz and was originally slated for tape-out in the first half of 2020. Other than faster core clocks, it will come with an updated sub-memory system including a faster IMC (Integrated Memory Controller), improving the memory latency and doubling the L3 cache.
As for the Loongson 3C5000, it’s a server chip with 16 cores and support for 4S to 16S systems, with an original tape-out planned for the second half of 2020. According to the company founder, the performance of this processor is comparable to AMD’s 1st Gen Epyc processors in general compute workloads. AVX2 and certain instructions should still be quite a bit slower on the Loongson chip.
The founder of Loongsoon, Ni Guangnan, who is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering said in a WeChat post that the Loongson 3A5000/3C5000 CPUs should be available soon. He also expects the company to join the Open-Source Instruction Consortium System and leading the country’s journey in establishing an independent chipmaking sector.
