Loongson is getting support from Lenovo for its own CPUs, a development that shows the progress China is making toward a chip ecosystem that is less dependent on the United States.

Lenovo is making its virtualization and cloud stack compatible with CPUs from Chinese manufacturer Longsoon. They use a different architecture and are not immediately competitive with Western alternatives. Nevertheless, the step is important.

Sanctions

Finally, China is struggling with American trade restrictions that prevent the export of advanced Western chips and related technologies to the country. The country wants to get rid of this dependence and is trying to build its own chip ecosystem. It is difficult, but the Chinese are making progress.

Longsoon’s most powerful chip is currently the LS3C5000: a sixteen-core CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz. The processor could compete with four-year-old AMD chips.

Own architecture

The CPU uses its own MIPS architecture. MIPS and RISC-V are not subject to US restrictions, but are also not compatible with x86 (or ARM). To be relevant, software developers must therefore make their stack compatible with Longsoon’s CPUs. It is telling that Lenovo, one of the world’s largest server manufacturers, is now joining this story.

Lenovo is, of course, a Chinese company and therefore has every reason to support Chinese ambitions. Moreover, a Chinese chip market seems to be an inevitable part of the future. By embracing this market from the start, Lenovo is securing interesting growth opportunities.