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TIL: LoongArch is a new MIPS CPU made by the Chinese company Loongson [1]. It looks like early benchmarks are middling. That said I don't see any indication of

TIL: LoongArch is a new MIPS CPU made by the Chinese company Loongson [1]. It looks like early benchmarks are middling. That said I don't see any indication of power consumption. >Loongson has been very busy this year bringing up LoongArch, their new downstream of the MIPS CPU architecture. They have been working on porting the Linux kernel to LoongArch as well as the open-source code compilers and related components for what they aim to be a Chinese domestic high performance CPU. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=LoongArch-LLVM-Plans https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=LoongArc...

throwaway81523 4y ago
Why is anyone doing a new mips cpu, given the similarities between mips and risc-v? Why not do risc-v like everyone else? (Cynically: Oh....).
- woadwarrior01 4y ago
  From the wikipedia page for it[1]: The Register reported in November 2021 the suspicion that LoongArch combines the best parts of MIPS and RISC-V, along with custom instructions. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#LoongArch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#LoongArch
- chenzhekl 4y ago
  Their chips "Loongson" appeared long before RISC-V is a thing in 2002, when MIPS is still widely used in the embeddeed world. I guess they just do not want to drop the experience accumulated in developing their previous chips.
  - rurban 4y ago
    and avoid the US backdoors into their military computers of course.
    - avianes 4y ago
      RISC-V is an open and royalty free ISA, it can't really be backdoored. And several Chinese companies are working on RISC-V implementation
- anotherhue 4y ago
  'silicon security' is probably as important as energy security.
Spivak 4y ago
I mean if I made a new middling CPU by 2022 standards I would be popping the champagne.
- tylerritchie 4y ago
  Yup, that's what I was trying to get at. Middling benchmarks for a new chip seems pretty great.

throwaway81523 4y ago

Why is anyone doing a new mips cpu, given the similarities between mips and risc-v? Why not do risc-v like everyone else? (Cynically: Oh....).

woadwarrior01 4y ago
From the wikipedia page for it[1]: The Register reported in November 2021 the suspicion that LoongArch combines the best parts of MIPS and RISC-V, along with custom instructions. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#LoongArch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#LoongArch
chenzhekl 4y ago
Their chips "Loongson" appeared long before RISC-V is a thing in 2002, when MIPS is still widely used in the embeddeed world. I guess they just do not want to drop the experience accumulated in developing their previous chips.
- rurban 4y ago
  and avoid the US backdoors into their military computers of course.
  - avianes 4y ago
    RISC-V is an open and royalty free ISA, it can't really be backdoored. And several Chinese companies are working on RISC-V implementation
anotherhue 4y ago
'silicon security' is probably as important as energy security.

Spivak 4y ago

I mean if I made a new middling CPU by 2022 standards I would be popping the champagne.

tylerritchie 4y ago
Yup, that's what I was trying to get at. Middling benchmarks for a new chip seems pretty great.