While distance is still important, the growth that the Chinese industry is having in the semiconductor sector cannot be ignored. The speed with which the industry is advancing is remarkable, so much so that the manufacturer Loongson claims to be close to closing the gap with American solutions from Intel and AMD with its new 3B6600 and 3B7000 processors expected in 2025.
Let’s be clear, the statements made by the CEO Zhang Ge relate to performance single coreas the CPUs are aimed at the mainstream market. Specifically, Loongson points to a 20x increase in performance in just 10 years. At the same time, the manager admitted that in the multi-core area the new CPUs are still behind their American competitors.
The 3B6600 processor has a configuration 8 LA854 cores set to 3 GHz and supported by an integrated GPU LG200. The 3B7000, on the other hand, still has an 8-core configuration, but LA864 with a frequency of 3.5GHz and, according to the slides, it would not feature an integrated graphics card.
Interestingly, Loongson is also slightly behind on the interface front. The new CPUs will not support PCIe 5 or DDR5but considering the segment in which they will be positioned and the export block imposed by the United States, rather interesting solutions appear.
What remains to be understood is where the new processors will be marketed. At the moment, availability is confirmed exclusively for the domestic market which nevertheless represents an important customer base. The Chinese government, in fact, has already blocked the adoption of foreign chips in the government and educational sectors.
Furthermore, countries like the Russia, sanctioned by the American government, could opt for Chinese solutions, guaranteeing an even faster diffusion. It cannot be ruled out that, within a few years, proposals like those of Longsoon will arise based on RISC-V can complement those of Intel, AMD and ARM also in the European markets.
