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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   31617 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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I thought China already had Loongson as a homegrown CPU. It already shipped as part of the Lemote PCs, for over a decade now. Not remotely competitive with Western/Taiwanese offerings but able to maybe browse the web and host a service or two. Are(/were?) these not built in China?

In July 2021 the Loongson 3 5000 series was released.[27] The processor series is Loongson's first with their own developed ISA, "LoongArch".[27] The processors announced include the 3A5000, a four-core desktop CPU, and the 3C5000L, a sixteen-core server CPU based on four 3A5000 in a single package.[30][26][34] Both CPUs are reported to be fabricated on a 12 nm process. Whilst the processor was noted to be using the GS464V cores initially, due to incompatibility with previous versions, the cores were renamed to LA464 in August 2021.[36]

I haven't watched this space closely. But the Chinese have long had modest-to-respectable successes with 16-12nm process, and I believe they can mass produce something close to Intel's 10 by this point, with good yields even for GPU-class chips (I may be optimistic).

What is important here is that the entirety of Chinese IC industry, no matter the process, is under attack due to the citizenship angle, and it is not lost on those people that sanctions have escalated a few times already; even if you're «safe» for now due to working on some obsolete process, it's clearly much safer to continue your career in the US. Of course there are other angles which are similarly harmful in the short term, but they are logistical, and thus in principle can be overcome.

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