China claims breakthroughs in classical and quantum computers
(2025/06/30)
- Reference: 1751258229
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/30/china_claims_breakthroughs_in_classical/
- Source link:
Chinese chip designer Loongson last week announced silicon it claims is the equal of western semiconductors from 2021.
Loongson has developed a proprietary instruction set architecture that blends MIPS and RISC-V. China’s government has ordered thousands of computers using Loongson silicon, and strongly suggests Chinese enterprises adopt its wares despite their performance being modest when compared to the most recent offerings from the likes of Intel, AMD, and Arm.
Last week’s launch closed the gap a little. Loongson touted a new server CPU called the 3C6000 series that it will sell in variants boasting 16, 32, 60, 64, and 128 cores – all capable of running two threads per core. The company’s [1]announcement includes SPEC CPU 2017 benchmark results that it says prove the 3C6000 series can compete with Intel’s Xeon Silver 4314 and Xeon Gold 6338 – third-generation Xeon scalable CPUs launched in 2021 and employing the [2]10nm Sunny Cove microarchitecture.
[3]
Loongson also launched the 2K3000, a CPU for industrial equipment or mobile PCs.
[4]
Company chair Hu Weiwu used the launch to proclaim that Loongson now has three critical markets covered – servers, industrial kit, and PCs – and therefore covers a complete computing ecosystem. He pointed out that Linux runs on Loongson kit, and that China’s National Grand Theatre used that combo to rebuild its ticketing system.
[5]China's Loongson gets OpenStack boost from Inspur on its MIPS-y silicon
[6]As Alibaba launches server-grade RISC-V CPU, Beijing throws its weight behind ISA
[7]China Telecom's next 150,000 servers will mostly use local processors
[8]China's top Office clone copies Microsoft again – with an inconvenient outage
Another customer Loongson mentioned is China Telecom, which has tested the 3C6000 series for use in its cloud, and emerged optimistic it will find a role in its future infrastructure.
While we’re on China Telecom, the mega-carrier operates a quantum technology group that two weeks ago [9]reportedly delivered a quantum computing measurement and control system capable of controlling 128 qubits and of being clustered into eight-way rigs that allow quantum computers packing 1,024 qubits.
Chinese media claim the product may be the world’s most advanced, and that the Middle Kingdom may therefore have become the pre-eminent source of off-the-shelf quantum computers. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.loongson.cn/news/show?id=757
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/06/ice_lake_xeon_intel/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aGJgOBBCeO-dBT7NU2g3VgAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aGJgOBBCeO-dBT7NU2g3VgAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloudos/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_alibaba_risc_v_c930/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/china_telecom_local_servers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/22/kingsoft_wps_office_outage_china/
[9] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202506/1336289.shtml
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Loongson has developed a proprietary instruction set architecture that blends MIPS and RISC-V. China’s government has ordered thousands of computers using Loongson silicon, and strongly suggests Chinese enterprises adopt its wares despite their performance being modest when compared to the most recent offerings from the likes of Intel, AMD, and Arm.
Last week’s launch closed the gap a little. Loongson touted a new server CPU called the 3C6000 series that it will sell in variants boasting 16, 32, 60, 64, and 128 cores – all capable of running two threads per core. The company’s [1]announcement includes SPEC CPU 2017 benchmark results that it says prove the 3C6000 series can compete with Intel’s Xeon Silver 4314 and Xeon Gold 6338 – third-generation Xeon scalable CPUs launched in 2021 and employing the [2]10nm Sunny Cove microarchitecture.
[3]
Loongson also launched the 2K3000, a CPU for industrial equipment or mobile PCs.
[4]
Company chair Hu Weiwu used the launch to proclaim that Loongson now has three critical markets covered – servers, industrial kit, and PCs – and therefore covers a complete computing ecosystem. He pointed out that Linux runs on Loongson kit, and that China’s National Grand Theatre used that combo to rebuild its ticketing system.
[5]China's Loongson gets OpenStack boost from Inspur on its MIPS-y silicon
[6]As Alibaba launches server-grade RISC-V CPU, Beijing throws its weight behind ISA
[7]China Telecom's next 150,000 servers will mostly use local processors
[8]China's top Office clone copies Microsoft again – with an inconvenient outage
Another customer Loongson mentioned is China Telecom, which has tested the 3C6000 series for use in its cloud, and emerged optimistic it will find a role in its future infrastructure.
While we’re on China Telecom, the mega-carrier operates a quantum technology group that two weeks ago [9]reportedly delivered a quantum computing measurement and control system capable of controlling 128 qubits and of being clustered into eight-way rigs that allow quantum computers packing 1,024 qubits.
Chinese media claim the product may be the world’s most advanced, and that the Middle Kingdom may therefore have become the pre-eminent source of off-the-shelf quantum computers. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.loongson.cn/news/show?id=757
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/06/ice_lake_xeon_intel/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aGJgOBBCeO-dBT7NU2g3VgAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aGJgOBBCeO-dBT7NU2g3VgAAARU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/loongson_inspur_cloudos/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_alibaba_risc_v_c930/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/22/china_telecom_local_servers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/22/kingsoft_wps_office_outage_china/
[9] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202506/1336289.shtml
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
Or even: good enough, for a comparable price.
Re: better than Western kit
Anonymous Coward
If they can export them profitable at lower prices than comparable Western kit, they can swamp the market and make enough money to develop at a faster pace.
Who really thinks they will not close the Chip gap soon? Especially as America is driving away so many foreign born scholars and students that are doing the development in the US.
Pre-eminent source of off-the-shelf quantum computers
Anonymous Coward
Now all they have to do is demonstrate how these computers are useful...
Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck
The more nations there are playing in the CPU space, the better off the world is. The Americans have had a "lock" on the market for quite long enough!
And they don't have to be better than Western kit, just better than whatever kit the West is prepared to let them have today ...