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Loongson releases next-generation CPU

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Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#51

Post by foverzar »

throwaway4good wrote: post #32
dragonelite wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But are you really willing to risk it all go into a TSMC based work flow just to end up on the US bad guys list.

I think even Chinese companies believed that Huawei was banned and sanctioned because they did something wrong and not just because they were Chinese and really good at what they do. Now of course they are all sanctioned and Huawei is sitting pretty with years invested in a sanctions proofed supply line.

> I think even Chinese companies believed that Huawei was banned and sanctioned because they did something wrong

I'd be surprised to see anyone seriously thinking that way outside of the western bubble.

I personally can't even recall what exactly they were accused of. Probably something typical along the lines of "tech theft" or clandestine? I do remember all this happening during Trump presidency, who was already attacking other Chinese companies (e.g. forcing Tik Tok to sell shares). And that there was some heavy competition for 5G stuff at the time.

My impression (and definitely not mine alone) was that it was all about clearing the market.

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#52

Post by The_Colonel »

gbin wrote: post #35
The_Colonel wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> actually useful Except it's a custom ISA (fork of MIPS). It could be fine for Chromebook-like use cases (basically web browser machine), but not really for anything more serious ...

I guess you mean on the desktop? If this thing runs linux, it is as serious as everything that can run Linux.

Only some Chinese distros support it. For a lot of serious things, you will need to have binary support - commercial software, docker etc.

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#53

Post by ficklepickle »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #39
unwind wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia [1] has some more details, but not too many on the main page itself. Also from the top of that page I learned that "Loongson" means "Dragon Core" which to me as a westerner makes it sound very clearly Chinese (because dragons) but also a lot cooler (because ... dragons!). Nice. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#LoongArch

Associating China with dragons seems like such a lucky PR win to me. How many countries are, outside of that country, associated with any mascot at all, let alone such a badass one? Also it seems appropriate that the Western concept of a dragon is much less friendly than the Chinese one -- at least, judging from the dances.

The Welsh have their own dragon (on their flag)

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#54

Post by Rediscover »

gbin wrote: post #35
The_Colonel wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> actually useful Except it's a custom ISA (fork of MIPS). It could be fine for Chromebook-like use cases (basically web browser machine), but not really for anything more serious ...

I guess you mean on the desktop? If this thing runs linux, it is as serious as everything that can run Linux.

OpenBSD has a history of supporting the Loongson arch. https://www.openbsd.org/loongson.html

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#55

Post by gunship_man »

sterlind wrote: post #50
wuxb wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese dragon = snake with four legs. It can fly (magically). Western dragon = dino with wings. It can fly. They're unrelated things. A Chinese dragon is more like a unicorn than a western dragon.

don't both of them breathe fire, though?

In chinese mythology, long are also control for rain.

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#56

Post by sillywalk »

INTPenis wrote: post #2

I remember the Loongson MIPS laptop made headlines many years ago. Richard Stallman even used one for a while. It got a lot of attention among my hacker space fellows, but I don't remember why. Was it an open hw design or something?

I don't know if this is statement accurate, but from the (archived) manufacturer's website:

"The world's first fully free software. All system source files(BIOS, kernel, drivers etc.) are free software, no close firmware needed." [0]

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20160703160118/http://zkml.lemot...

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#57

Post by BirAdam »

ficklepickle wrote: post #53
Jeff_Brown wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Associating China with dragons seems like such a lucky PR win to me. How many countries are, outside of that country, associated with any mascot at all, let alone such a badass one? Also it seems appropriate that the Western concept of a dragon is much less friendly than the Chinese one -- at least, judging from the dances.

The Welsh have their own dragon (on their flag)

This was the reason for Dragon computers btw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_32/64

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#58

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

erremerre wrote: post #44
mrweasel wrote: post #23

If they can keep up with the AMD and Intel CPUs they list, then that's actually pretty impressive and actually useful. There is a lot of people still daily driving 5 - 10 old processors just fine, it's absolutely plenty for a office desktop or even light development work. I would like to see actual benchmarks though.

I use a core i7-920 from first generation that I recently changed with a Xeon compatible socket and another i7-3770 from third generation as daily drivers. And I do some gaming with non-intensive games. The computer works perfectly with no major drawbacks. The third generation is noisy because it is in a small format case and with very deficient ventilation that I can't solve.

Did you try to at least remove the dust/dirt which tends to clog those parts over these timespans? With forced air from a pressured can to blow it out, or the other way around with a vacuum cleaner? (But arrest the fan, or unplug it while doing so, if possible! Otherwise it can spin like crazy and working as a generator, even frying the controller!) Furthermore the cooling paste/glue/mat between the die, or the lid of the CPU and the underside of the cooler tends to degrade/dry out, also because of time. Exchanging that requires disassembly, removing the old stuff carefully with isopropanol, reapplying some thermal paste, nothing special, just Arctic MX4 is good enough, and then reattaching the cooler.

Would work wonders, I guess.

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#59

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

The_Colonel wrote: post #52
gbin wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you mean on the desktop? If this thing runs linux, it is as serious as everything that can run Linux.

Only some Chinese distros support it. For a lot of serious things, you will need to have binary support - commercial software, docker etc.

That's why they have:

LoongBT, faster x86 and ARM binary translation, 213 instructions

Re: Loongson releases next-generation CPU

#60

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

RobotToaster wrote: post #33
BirAdam wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA’s recent sanctions against the PRC has made Loongson forbidden if I remember correctly. Hopefully, this will change.

Other way around, until last month China officially banned most of the loongson chips from being exported. The ban was reportedly lifted due to interest from Russian companies in using the chips. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/loongon-cpus-bound-for-rus...

Fitting, because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_CPU didn't really happen.
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