After we did our The Rise of China GPU Makers story impressed by Jon Peddie Analysis after which detailed by Jon Peddie himself, we have been considerably shocked that Loongson — a Chinese language CPU champion — was not part of the sport. Nicely, now it appears like issues have modified.
One of many bulletins that flew beneath our radar this month was the introduction of the Loongson LS2K2000 system-on-chip (SoC) that options the corporate’s proprietary LoongArch microarchitecture in addition to its first own-designed graphics processing unit (because of Heise.de for the tip).
The LS2K2000 CPU is hardly something particular, as it’s aimed toward varied embedded purposes. As such, it solely has two LA364 cores that includes the proprietary LoongArch microarchitecture with all of its peculiarities in addition to some fundamental I/O capabilities like a 64-bit DDR4-2400 reminiscence interface, PCIe 3.0, SATA 3.0, USB, Ethernet, audio, and every thing else that one involves anticipate from a simplistic SoC.
What grabbed our consideration was the phrase that the LS2K2000 options the LG120 GPU ‘core independently developed by Loongson, additional optimizing the graphics algorithm and efficiency.’
Given the purposes that the LS2K2000 is aimed toward, it’s unlikely that we’re coping with one thing very superior when it comes to efficiency. In reality, we imagine it will be just about underwhelming with regards to energy consumption. But, a fundamental GPU from a CPU-centric firm appears curious, and a majority of these foundations could be constructed upon.
In terms of the LG120 GPU itself, it appears to be a really fundamental unit, the corporate would most likely point out its capabilities if there was one thing to brag about. What appears essential is that Loongson claims that it is a unit designed internally.
We do know that many Chinese language corporations license Arm and Creativeness Applied sciences GPU IP to combine into their designs in a bid to avoid wasting money and time (learn our China GPU story for particulars). In the meantime, Loongson has publicly mentioned that it was adopting the RISC-V structure for its subsequent tasks. Whereas it was disclosed within the context of CPUs, the structure is versatile sufficient for GPUs, too. So, who is aware of?
After all, it’s attainable that Loongson solely has a GPU for very fundamental wants. But, the corporate that has ambitions to problem AMD’s Zen 3 on the CPU facet of the enterprise may effectively have GPU ambitions, too. If it have been designed for scalability, a proprietary GPU structure can be begin, even when it begins on the low finish.