Quad-core processors from the Far East
Until relatively recently when you lifted the lid on computers manufactured in the Far East you were guaranteed to see familiar labels such as Intel...
Until relatively recently when you lifted the lid on computers manufactured in the Far East you were guaranteed to see familiar labels such as Intel, AMD and ARM on the big chips. China-based Loongson has been busy for some time fabricating their own processor designs and have recently announced two impressive 64-bit processors based around a MIPS-derived architecture which includes binary translation allowing them to run x86 and ARM code.
The Loongson-3A2000 and 3B2000 use the company’s GS464E nine-stage pipelined architecture. The 3A2000 is aimed at the high-performance consumer electronics market competing with the likes of Intel, AMD and ARM while the 3B2000 will be used in a number of home-grown eight and 16-core server systems. According to Alexandru Voica of Imagination Technology (owners of the MIPS embedded processor architecture), a series of significant microarchitectural enhancements produced a 2.7 times boost in performance figures compared with the previous generation 3A1000 and 3B1000 cores.
The 3B series includes the 1.5GHz 3B1500. “Platforms integrating an octa-core 3B1500 configuration can deliver up to 192 Gflops of peak performance while consuming only 30W,” said Voica. He also said that Loongson were planning to release two new chips in 2016 based on a 28 nm process clocked at closer to 2 GHz.
The Loongson-3A2000 and 3B2000 use the company’s GS464E nine-stage pipelined architecture. The 3A2000 is aimed at the high-performance consumer electronics market competing with the likes of Intel, AMD and ARM while the 3B2000 will be used in a number of home-grown eight and 16-core server systems. According to Alexandru Voica of Imagination Technology (owners of the MIPS embedded processor architecture), a series of significant microarchitectural enhancements produced a 2.7 times boost in performance figures compared with the previous generation 3A1000 and 3B1000 cores.
The 3B series includes the 1.5GHz 3B1500. “Platforms integrating an octa-core 3B1500 configuration can deliver up to 192 Gflops of peak performance while consuming only 30W,” said Voica. He also said that Loongson were planning to release two new chips in 2016 based on a 28 nm process clocked at closer to 2 GHz.
