Loongson Confirms Tape-Out of Next-Gen Server CPUs, Reaching Intel Ice Lake 10nm Performance: 3C6000 16 Cores & Up To 64 Cores

Loongson has announced that it has taped out its next-gen 3C6000 server CPUs which can offer similar or better performance than Intel's Ice Lake.

Domestic solutions in China are rising rapidly, mainly focusing on the hardware side of the markets since that's where most of the demand lies. In the midst of it, Loongson has emerged as a dominant force, providing customers with homegrown CPU solutions intended for both consumer and server usage.

The firm's latest venture is the Loongson 3C6000 Server CPU, which is set to be the company's latest server offering, bringing impressive performance gains and narrowing down competition from the likes of Intel.

At a conference held in China, Loongson revealed certain details on the 3C6000 server CPU, claiming that the processor is under development and has completed the "tape-out" process, which means that it will be heading for production soon. The CPU is based on the LA664 core architecture which brings double the general processing performance compared to the last-gen 3C5000 CPUs. Furthermore, the company also fine-tunes its Dragonchain interconnect which allows for higher core count chaplet designs to be made possible.

In terms of specifications, Loongson's 3C6000 server CPU is a single chiplet design that features a 16-core and 32-thread configuration and supports DDR4-3200 memory and 64 PCIe Gen4 lanes. Interestingly, the firm has planned out an extensive roadmap revolving around higher silicon chip configurations, including dual chiplet (32 Core / 64 Thread on LS3D6000) & quad chiplet (LS3E6000) chips in plans.

In terms of performance, the Loongson 3C6000 was shown to be ahead of the Intel Xeon Silver 4314 (16 Core Ice Lake CPU) while the LS3D6000 CPU is said to offer strong performance against the Intel Xeon Gold 6338 CPU (32 Core Ice Lake CPU). Loongson's latest server CPUs are a direct competitor to Intel's Xeon "Ice Lake" family which is based on a 10nm architecture and launched back in 2021.

Loongson 3C6000 offers 60-95% better performance versus the 3C5000 chips in SPEC CPU 2017, up to 33% single and 2x gains in multi-threaded performance at UnixBench while the 32-core chip can offer up to a 62-110% gain in SPEC CPU 2017 tests. These test results are said to be based on early test samples so final performance may improve by a good margin.

Loongson still has a long way to go, given that it still needs to capitalize on the regional markets. Due to the firm's continuous architectural developments, they have managed to narrow down the gap, but since Loongson operates in its segment, the Chinese market, it does look determined to consolidate its position. Regarding the release date, the Loongson 3C6000 server CPU is expected to debut in Q4 2024 while the higher-end chips will be introduced in 2025.