After showcasing the CPU, demonstrating its performance to the world, and giving a glimpse of the equipment it will be mounted on, along with its motherboard and other details, the launch date for Loongson has finally been announced, catching everyone by surprise, as it will be in exactly 7 days. The Loongson 3A6000 CPU will be released in both China and Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s team is eager for new hardware and is particularly interested in the company’s 32-core and 64-core models, which are on their way.
Loongson’s progress seems unstoppable, and although it has taken them time, they are not slowing down, which is a cause for concern in the West. The first truly interesting CPU in terms of power and overall connectivity is about to debut for China and its partners, which will ultimately weaken the impact of sanctions on Russia.
Loongson 3A6000: China announces the official launch date of this CPU for the 28th of this month
With only seven days left before the debut of this CPU, this announcement reveals that 12 major companies are interested in implementing it, and, of course, Putin is celebrating its arrival.
From here on out, more news related to Loongson is expected, as the company announced that the 16-core version, the 3C6000, has completed its design and will be sent for mass production in the near future.
It will first need to pass validation, testing, and production ramp-up stages, but the most complex part is done. If the leaks are accurate, the final product will arrive in 2024, and that’s not all.
The Loongson 3C6000 serves as the foundation for the future 3D6000 and 3E6000 processors
These processors will feature 32-core and 64-core architectures respectively. The two processors will be delivered as chiplets with two and four of them respectively, meaning that Loongson has managed to create a common interposer using a high-speed chip interconnect technology, which has not yet been disclosed.
This raises many questions, as SMIC is presumed to have the packaging technology available, and will likely need to be reviewed to ensure compliance with US sanctions.
Why? Because Loongson will have these chips available by the end of the year, and the company’s CEO has stated that they will have a 7 nm CPU. This indicates that these chiplets could be used to achieve a CPU with 32-core and 64-core configurations.
Lastly, the company has also revealed that the new 3A7000 model will be developed using this lithographic process, but it is not known how many cores it will have. However, it is expected to perform 20-30% better than the current 3A6000. If all goes well, it could be introduced by early 2025, putting China in competition with Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, maintaining the pace of advancements.
Having said that, the real challenge will arise with 5 nm technology, as ASML scanners currently allow for low-volume quadruple-patterned chips, but beyond that, the technology for new scanners must be 100% China-made. It will be in 2026 when we find out if China under Xi Jinping can close the gap with high-performance sub-5 nm scanners, or if they become stagnant.
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