The Loongson 3C5000 Wu Fuqi CPU integrates 16 high-performance Loongson LA464 processors, 32MB shared cache and 4 64-bit DDR4-3200 memory controllers, with a main frequency of 21-23GHz, and the single-new product double-precision floating-point operating speed exceeds 05TFLOPS .

Recently, according to the results of the screening activity page of scientific and technological innovation highlights of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Loongson Technology Co., Ltd. has completed the development of Loongson 35,000 server CPUs based on the independent logo Arch instruction system, and domestic server CPUs have taken a step forward.

For the naming of the CPU, the A series is generally a desktop CPU, and the C series is a server CPU. According to public information, the Loongson 3C5000 Wu Fuqi CPU integrates 16 high-performance Loongson LA464 processors, 32MB shared cache and 4 64-bit DDR4-3200 memory controllers, with a main frequency of 2.1-2.3GHz, and a single new product with double-precision floating Dots run faster than 0.5TFLOPS.

In terms of performance, Loongson's 3C5000 is already equivalent to the mainstream CPUs on the market, and can already meet the performance requirements of current cloud computing and data centers.

Domestic CPU

It is worth mentioning that LoongArch, the Loongson independent instruction system architecture, has the characteristics of being completely independent, technologically advanced, and compatible with ecology. Among them, the instructions are nearly 2000 -ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title=" 2000 Model">2000-ic/" title="2000 Model">2000-ic/" title="2000 Model">2000-ic/" title="2000 Model">2000-ic/" title="2000 Model ">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model"> 2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000- ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/" title="2000 model">2000-ic/ " title="2000 model"> 2000, excluding the MIPS instruction system. The architecture was officially released by Godson this year.

In July this year, Loongson Zhongke released 35,000 CPUs. As a desktop CPU, its performance is close to mainstream products in the market. According to the evaluation data of relevant institutions, the fixed floating point score of Loongson 35,000 single-core SPECPU2006Base at 2.5GHz frequency exceeds 26 points, and the average performance per GHz exceeds 10 points, which is quite close to the mainstream X86 products in the market.

Among them, in addition to the CPU core, the Loongson processor has independently developed hundreds of IPs such as the GPU core, AD5324BCPZ-REEL7 memory controller and PHY, high-speed IO interface controller and PHY.

In addition to Godson, the domestic CPU force also includes Zhaoxin, Feiteng, etc. In 2015, Zhaoxin released the ZX-C4600/4610 processor, which is considered to be a general-purpose X86CPU with a lower domestic price threshold. It is clocked at 2GHz and uses a 28nm manufacturing process.

According to the test, the performance of this Zhaoxin chip is basically twice that of the Pentium dual-core E2160 released by Intel in 2007, which can already meet the daily office needs. At the same time, due to the X86 architecture, it is compatible with operating systems such as Windows and Linux.

Feiteng also released the classic FT-1500A/4 quad-core processor and other processor products. However, due to the ArmV8 architecture, it cannot be compatible with Windows. Basically, it can only run domestic Linux systems, which is farther away from ordinary consumers.

Feiteng also released the 16-core processor of the FT-1500A/16 and the 64-core server platform of the FT-2000+/64.

In addition to the above-mentioned models, domestic CPUs include Kunpeng, Haiguang, Shenwei and other brands. For example, Shenwei's CPU is used by the super Shenwei TaihuLight, which was once the world's first.

The dilemma and status quo of domestic CPU

The above has already learned about some domestic CPU-related products, but it is certain that if you are not in the industry, you may have basically never heard of these domestic CPUs. On the one hand, the market share of domestic CPU is too small, and its popularity is limited to relevant professionals. On the other hand, the promotion of domestic CPU is more difficult.

First of all, in terms of price, ordinary users may think that since the performance of domestic CPUs still has a gap compared with Intel, and may even be inferior to the previous generation of Pentium and Celeron, the price must be cheaper than these products.

But in fact, it is precisely because the audience of domestic processors is small, most users do not pay, and the sales volume is low. The cost of research and development is here, and the cost of each CPU is not low. Suppose it takes 100 million yuan to develop a new series (the cost is very low), but in the end less than 100,000 sets are sold (100,000 sets are basically the upper limit of domestic CPU sales), then the cost of each set will reach 1,000 yuan, not counting Additional costs for channel costs, storage, shipping, etc.

Compared with Intel, it is difficult to reduce the cost of domestic CPUs, because AMD's sales often exceed millions, which leads to the price of domestic CPUs even higher than these foreign CPU products.

When the cost cannot be reduced and the performance is inferior to similar foreign products, ordinary consumers basically do not support it and can only rely on government procurement. If you want the average consumer to pay, you can only lower the price now through subsidies.

Besides cost, another issue is ecology. Zhaoxin CPU adopts X86 architecture, which is compatible with Windows and has a slightly better ecological environment. But for Loongson and Feiteng, they are not compatible with Windows due to the use of self-developed LongArch and Arm architectures.

This is not very user friendly. Without a corresponding software ecological environment, it means that there is no room for domestic CPUs to display their capabilities. If you want a software ecosystem, you can only give up independent research and development, buy general architecture, manufacture server CPUs, and help companies quickly fund. But in this way, once stuck abroad, it is difficult for companies to fight back.

How long can domestic CPUs replace Intel?

Today, China has set off a wave of domestic substitution. The CPU is the core of the operation and control of computer systems. How to realize the control of the CPU, withstand the test of the market, and realize the substitution is the key to the rise of the country.

At present, there are many CPU products in China, so how far is it to replace Intel?

In terms of performance, the performance of the Loongson 3A5000 is comparable to the Intel i5 in 2015, which is already very good, knowing that the performance gap between domestic and foreign CPUs in the past can reach more than 10 years. So just looking at performance, it can replace Intel in about 5-8 years.

But aside from the performance of the CPU, the ecology is also very important. For example, overseas, most Android phones use the GMS framework, and only GMS can run Google apps and apps that require GMS support, while most overseas Android apps require GMS support. When phones are banned from using GMS, in overseas markets it means basically doing nothing but making calls, which is ecology.

Due to the strong market position of Intel CPUs, Windows is basically developed on X86, which will lead to compatibility with other CPUs.

The scarce market share of other CPUs makes it difficult to attract developers who are willing to develop corresponding software for this architecture, and eventually fall into a vicious circle. The strong are always strong, and the weak are weaker.

Fortunately, now some CPUs are starting to focus on breaking this ecosystem. For example, Loongson has also begun to adopt compatibility mode, which can run some Windows programs. In the future, as more and more programs can run, I believe that it will slowly occupy a place in the market, and promote the iteration and development of domestic CPU technology through the market.

Then the answer is obvious. If you only look at performance, it may take 5-8 years to fully replace Intel. If there are no geeks, domestic CPUs can be used daily. However, ecological defects make domestic CPUs embarrassing. Although it is called to build a third ecosystem, it is obviously a long process. Before that, compatibility with the other two ecosystems will be the only way for domestic CPUs.