China's Loongson Looks To Mainline LoongArch Support In LLVM

[phoronix]

Phoronix: China's Loongson Looks To Mainline LoongArch Support In LLVM

Not only is Loongson working on bringing up LoongArch ISA support for the GCC compiler and related GNU toolchain components, but the Chinese company has now laid out their plans for LoongArch on LLVM...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=LoongArch-LLVM-Plans

[kylew77]

With POWER 10 no longer being 100% open like POWER 9 and RISC V being less performant that many had hoped for, Loongson looks promising maybe or at least is something to watch!

[tildearrow]

With POWER 10 no longer being 100% open like POWER 9 and RISC V being less performant that many had hoped for, Loongson looks promising maybe or at least is something to watch!

The only problem is that while it may be open, the implementations could have shady components, and more so if both the architecture and implementation come from China... (you know the amount of censorship that exists there)

[kylew77]

The only problem is that while it may be open, the implementations could have shady components, and more so if both the architecture and implementation come from China... (you know the amount of censorship that exists there)

Yeah kind of like that North Korean Linux distro that has all the trackers in it. That thought did occur to me. I truly don't know what the best option is for an open CPU is anymore.

[Old Grouch]

Yeah kind of like that North Korean Linux distro that has all the trackers in it. That thought did occur to me. I truly don't know what the best option is for an open CPU is anymore.

There isn't one.

Well, there is*, but it is not useful in the context of current computing norms**.

*There's more where that came from.
**If you insist on being able to run Linux, you can, but you need 'some' patience.

[jabl]

It is very unlikely for RISC V to match single-threaded x86 performance without a µop cache in the RISC V CPU.

Eh? There's plenty of microarchitectural features missing in current RISC-V CPU's to make them competitive on the high end. And there's plenty to criticize in the RISC-V ISA itself. But so what? As x86 has so amply demonstrated, with sufficient thrust pigs do actually fly perfectly well.

[tuxd3v]

its a valid option, like others have said against power10 with blobs..for those who like openness..

However Loongson is actually ~500Mhz faster, I believe its not in the same ballpark as the last iteration of Elbrus 16S@16nm( that already trade blows with the Intel Xeon.. in terms of performance..), but a lot needed to be done to test both..
The good thing about Loongson, is its openarch, last iteration is better than the previous one, open compiler toolchains and stuff..
Previous iteration of Loongson, were produced in Europe STMicroelectronics Fabs @ 28nm, current iteration is produced in Asia, I don't know were exactly@12nm

While both CPUs are a niche market in the world, barely non-existent, it a good way to improve their countries self-reliance in Computers..
Elbrus have being successfully implemented in the DataCenter and as a desktop in Russia, I believe the same apply to Loongson in China..

[ServerGarbage]

People speaking about possible backdoors on longsoon while they are on their intel processor with me or amd with psp, or qualcomm, or mediatek... And that only speaking about hardware or firmware level backdoors, then we have all the big tech spying on us from the USA. It's not like china are good guys, but all the propaganda focusing on china espionage and opression while waving off usa espionage and opression, israel espionage and opression. It's like the factor for it being acceptable or not is being a usa ally. I don't want to be observed 24/7 but I think the first step it's not being spied by my government.

[tuxd3v]

In fact I am in the market trying to get my hands on a loongson machine, or a elbrus one( but without success so far.. ).
They seems to be made for big guyers, like big enterprises, or government agencies, etc..
I can't find a place, as a home costumer to find one and buy it, like we do with x86 and stuff..
I didn't yet givenup on it, as I would like to have a VLIW Isa on my collection, or a loongson one..

EDIT: This is the only elbrus system( Elbrus [email protected] ) I could found, and its still in development I believe:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/sra-centr8/icepeakitx-elbrus-8cb

The board is very nice, but the price...

[ayumu]

If they do not adopt RISC-V like everybody else, Loongson will be left behind in the dust.