Rain Technology, June 29 news, in recent years, in the “scientific and technological innovation”, “self-reliance and self-improvement” of the background, the domestic chip industry has made significant progress. Huawei Kunpeng, Feiteng, Haikuang, Zhaoshen, Longxin, Shenwei and other domestic CPU manufacturers have risen rapidly, constituting an important force of domestic chips.
From the architectural level, these six major domestic CPU vendors have mainly adopted three different technology routes:
One is based on the introduction of the architecture of the independent research and development route, the representative vendors for the Longxin and Shenwei. These two vendors adopted the MIPS and Alpha architectures respectively in the early days, and then expanded on this basis to develop architectures with independent intellectual property rights. For example, LoongArch, a proprietary instruction set, was launched by Longxin, and SW-64, a proprietary instruction set architecture, was launched by Shenwei. The advantage of this model is a faster start, but long-term development needs to get rid of the dependence on the original architecture. The second is the x86 route, which is mainly represented by Hikari and MegaCore. Hikari has obtained AMD’s permanent x86 instruction set license, while MegaChip has obtained VIA’s x86 instruction set phase license. x86 architecture has a huge application ecosystem in the desktop and server areas, and choosing this route allows for rapid integration into the existing market, but it also requires facing fierce competition from Intel and AMD. Third is the ARM route, represented by Huawei Kunpeng and Feiteng. Both vendors have been granted permanent licenses for the ARMv8 architecture, which has dominated the mobile space with its low power consumption and high efficiency, and in recent years has also made its mark in the server space. Adopting the ARM architecture can effectively reduce power consumption, but it also requires a lot of optimization and adaptation work in the software ecosystem.
For quite a long time in the past, China’s instruction set architecture has long relied on foreign licenses. This situation has, to some extent, constrained the independent development of domestic chips. But now, we have ushered in an important breakthrough, and the domestic CPU field is gradually getting rid of the dependence on foreign technology licenses and building an independent and controllable supply chain.
On June 26th, LoongArch announced the release of the LoongArch 3C6000 series of server processors, which are based on the LoongArch architecture, as well as the LoongArch 2K3000/3B6000M chips, which are processors for the industrial control field and mobile terminals. This event is an important milestone.
Shi Huikang, deputy director of the Electronic Information Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out in his speech at the conference that in the past, China’s instruction set architecture relies heavily on foreign authorization, and today, products based on the independent instruction set LoongArch continue to be enriched, reflecting the rapid enhancement of the independent capability. It is because the underlying core technology CPU instruction set architecture firmly in their own hands, in order to desktop computing, server clusters, industrial control, mobile devices and other full-scenario product matrix, both the quantity of continuous expansion, but also the quality of the effective enhancement of the industrial ecological leaps and bounds to achieve the development of the industrial ecosystem, will be the base of the independent information technology system pushed to a new level. The 3C6000 series server CPU released at this conference utilizes the Dragon architecture, an autonomous instruction system, and has been successfully flowed in the first half of 2024. The launch of this chip not only enriches the product line of Dragoncore, but also provides more choices for the domestic server market.
According to the test report from Saixi Labs of the China National Institute of Electronics Standardization, the single 3C6000/S server runs SPEC CPU 2017 single-core, single-thread fixed/floating-point scores of 5.56/6.93 at 2.2GHz, and multi-core, single-threaded/floating-point scores of 73.2/58.5;
The dual 3C6000/D server running SPEC CPU 2017 at 2.1GHz scored 284/216 for multi-approved/floating point; the dual 3C6000/Q server running SPEC CPU 2017 at 2.1GHz scored 450/283 for multi-approved/floating point;
Quad 3C6000/D servers running SPEC CPU 2017 Multi-Approved/Floating Point score at 2.1GHz is 547/412 points. The above 3C6000/S and 3C6000/D measured single-core/multi-core performance reaches the level of Intel’s 16-core Xeon Silver 4314 and 32-core Xeon Gold 6338, which will be available in 2021, respectively, and the performance of the 64-core 3C6000/Q exceeds that of the 40-core Xeon Platinum 8380.
In conjunction with Intel’s third-generation Xeon Scalable Architecture server chip shipments, the comprehensive performance of the 3C6000 series of server CPUs has basically reached the level of mainstream products in the 2023 market. This means that Longchip has made significant progress on the road to catching up with the international advanced level.
Hu Weiwu, Chairman of Longxin Zhongke, emphasized in the keynote report “Today’s Long Tassel in Hand” that the fundamental way out for China’s information industry lies in the construction of a third set of ecosystems independent of the X86 and ARM systems. This viewpoint is of strategic significance, and it points out the direction of the development of domestic CPUs, i.e., we can’t just be satisfied with catching up, and we have to be more innovative and build our own ecosystem. Therefore, Longchip insists on self-reliance and carries independence to the end, laying a firm foundation for an independent information technology system in three aspects: chip R&D based on independent IP, chip production based on independent process, and software ecosystem based on independent instruction system. The Longxin 3C6000 and 2K3000 Longxin CPUs released at this conference do not rely on any foreign technology authorization or offshore supply chain, reflecting Longxin’s firm determination on the road to autonomy and control. Hu Weiwu pointed out that with the goal of establishing an independent information technology system, Longchip insists on a steady and stable technical route in chip development. This pragmatic attitude is worth recognizing. Chip R&D requires long-term accumulation and cannot be rushed. One is to improve single-core performance before increasing the number of cores. Through more than a decade of iteration from 3A1000 to 3A6000, the 4-core Loncore 3A6000 desktop CPU released at the end of 2023 has reached the level of mainstream market performance, based on which 16-core, 32-core, and 64-core 3C6000 series of server CPUs were launched. this shows that Loncore has made significant progress in single-core performance enhancement, and has laid the foundation for the subsequent development of multi-core.
Longchamp is the first company in the world to launch the 3C6000 series of server CPUs. The second is to consolidate the foundation of general-purpose processors before developing specialized processors represented by GPGPU. The 2K3000/3B6000M released in this conference marks that after more than two decades of accumulation, Longchip has systematically mastered the key core technologies of general-purpose processors, graphics processors, AI processors, and their underlying software design, and Longchip processor development has entered a new period of vigorous development of AI processors on the basis of consolidating general-purpose processors and graphics processors. This shows that Longchip is more comprehensive in its technology layout, and is expected to make a difference in the field of artificial intelligence in the future.
Hu Weiwu pointed out that after more than two decades of sustained efforts since 2001, the Longchip CPU has begun to shift from self-reliance to self-reliance to save more (cost), self-reliance to self-reliance to higher (performance), and self-reliance to self-reliance to better (ecology). This shift reflects the three-stage goal of Longchip’s development, i.e., firstly to realize self-control, then to reduce cost and improve performance, and finally to build a perfect ecosystem.
The price/performance ratio of DragonChip 3A6000, DragonChip 3C6000, and DragonChip 2K3000 is more than three times that of the previous generation of DragonChip products, and has the price/performance competitiveness of the open market. The desktop Linux software ecology of Dragon architecture has formed unique independent characteristics in printer driver, browser plug-in, etc. In the projects based on Linux desktop system, including the localization of the ticketing system of the National Grand Theater, only the processor of Dragon architecture meets the compatibility and application requirements. This shows that Longchip has improved its competitiveness in the market and has advantages in specific application scenarios.
The next-generation general-purpose CPU products being developed by Longchip, such as the Longchip 3B6600, 3A6600 desktop CPUs, and the Longchip 3D7000 server CPUs, will further significantly improve performance. We look forward to even greater breakthroughs in the future with Longchip. 
