China's Loongson 3A6000 CPUs which come with integrated GPUs have achieved performance similar to Intel's 10th Gen chips.
Loongson 3A6000 CPUs For China's Domestic Market Releasing Next Year, Performance On Par With Intel's 10th Gen & AMD's Zen 2 Cores
Loongson Zhongke chairman Hu Weiwu announced at a briefing discussing the company's sales for the first quarter of 2023 that the company has developed its initial System on Chip (SoC) that implements its proprietary general-purpose graphics processor. Following the announcement, it was revealed that the expected release date for this new SoC chip (3A6000) is scheduled for 2023.
During the announcement, Hu Weiwu revealed that the SoC was previously taped out in the first quarter of this year.
At present, the relevant IP research and development has been basically completed, and comprehensive verification is being carried out. On this basis, in the second half of 2024, the tape-out of a dedicated chip that takes into account graphics card and computing power acceleration functions will be completed.
— Hu Weiwu, Chairman, Loonson Zhongke
To improve the processor's performance, the chairman revealed that frequency & efficiency were significant for the company to work towards. The Loongson 3A6000 reaches a score of 17 points per GHz, which now means the company can work towards 20 points for the chip. Intel's chip has a much higher frequency but the score per GHz ranges between 15-20 points within SPEC CPU 2006.
The company reiterated that the performance of the 3A6000 is comparable to AMD's Zen 2 architecture built on the 7nm process technology, which is also equal to Intel's 10th Gen Core processor series.
The Loongson CPUs will continue to increase frequency while not following the same roadmap strategy as Intel. The company is afraid of negatively affecting efficiency in place of frequency, so Loongson will continue to reduce power consumption and overall cost at 3 GHz. The company is also planning to tape out its first hybrid (BIG.little) design in the first half of 2024 & the successor to the 3A6000, the 3B6000, is expected to offer four big and four small cores with an advanced iGPU.
The company will also start development of its next-generation 3A7000 and 3B7000 CPUs which are expected to tackle AMD's Zen 3 and Intel's Tiger Lake offerings by the second half of 2024.
In 2024, Loongson will tape out the first large and small core synergy chip. The next generation of Loongson 3A6000 will be 3B6000, with four big four small eight cores and built-in self-developed GPU. The big core strives to improve performance by 20% through structural optimization. The above (very difficult). On the basis of 3B6000, use more advanced technology to develop 3A7000 or 3B7000. In the second half of the year, technical preparations for more advanced technology will be carried out (because Loongson insists on self-developed IP, it is necessary to customize PHY such as memory interface and PCIE interface) , it will take approximately one year.
Phoronix has also revealed that Loongson has started posting Linux patches for its 3A6000 CPUs which you can check out over here.
News Source: Kuai Technology
