The Chinese Loongson 3A6000 processor is already running in mini-PCs. Features and characteristics of the Morefine M700S model
The Chinese have made great progress in chip development over the past few years, including modern processors. One of them is the Loongson 3A6000, which is approximately equal in performance to the Intel Core i3-10100F. But today we are talking not so much about the chip, but about the device in which it works – the Morefine M700S mini-PC. Details under the cut.
What kind of device is this?
Purely externally, the model is not particularly different from its “brothers”. The device comes in a black case. Its dimensions are 149x145x50 mm. The nettop weighs 812 g.
As for the motherboard, the developers have provided two slots for DDR4-3200 memory (up to 64 GB), one connector for an M.2 PCIe Gen 3.0 drive and space for installing a 2.5-inch hard drive. The specifications state support for Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.
If we talk about ports and connectors, these are two USB 3.0, four USB 2.0, one USB-C, two HDMI and RJ45. There is gigabit Ethernet. The device supports simultaneous operation of two 4K displays.
As usual, the Chinese device received a pre-installed Chinese OS. This is Loongnix based on Linux, but if desired, it can be easily replaced with Windows or Ubuntu. The developers claim that their device is not for solving any problems that require high performance. The device can be used to work with office applications, industrial programs, in medicine, etc.
The M700S retails for CNY 2,799, which is equivalent to US$387.
Not just a mini PC
Yes, other devices are also based on Chinese processors. For example, a laptop was released based on the 3A5000, this is the previous generation.
Laptop Specifications
• Processor: Loongson 3A5000 2.0 GHz.
• RAM: 8 GB RAM.
• Hard drive: 256G SSD.
• Operating system: UOS/Galaxy Kirin/loongnix.
• Screen: 14-inch display.
We found it on Aliexpress, the cost is about 160 thousand rubles. The device has basic capabilities, but it has a metal body. In general, the developer positions the laptop as an ultra-light device. It can also be used to solve office tasks, for example, when traveling.
What kind of processors does the company produce?
This is a completely Chinese development with its own architecture, which is called Loongson Architecture or LoongArch.
Why does the company need a new architecture? She decided to become independent after MIPS Technologies switched to RISC-V, which we wrote about, by the way. Previously, MIPS Technologies was involved in architecture development and licensing of intellectual property associated with MIPS processors. The company did not produce the chips themselves, but the reborn organization will produce processors based on the RISC-V architecture.
The new architecture was evaluated by independent experts several years ago. They found out that it has nothing in common with ALPHA, ARM, MIPS, POWER, RISC-V or x86. The company has developed its own instruction format, encoding, addressing modes, etc. LoongArch contains about 2,000 proprietary instructions.
According to the developers, they have removed outdated instructions to ensure lower power consumption and more efficient operation. In addition to the base instruction set, the company has added binary conversion (LBT) extension instructions, vector processing extension (LSX) instructions, vector processing extension (LASX) instructions, and virtualization extension (LVZ) instructions, PC Watch reports.
Due to the fact that all technologies were developed practically from scratch, the company managed to increase the energy efficiency of the processor.
Source.
In 2022, the Godson 3C5000 processor appeared, then the 3C6000 with 16 cores. Later, the 32-core 3D6000, which includes two 3C6000 dies on one substrate. And finally, a little later, the company announced the 3A6000. It was stated that the chip's performance is comparable to AMD's Ryzen 5000 chips.
By the way, the 3A5000 was mentioned above, a processor that is the predecessor of the 3A6000. What is their performance difference? The 3A6000 processor shows a 68% higher result in comparison. The test checks performance in single-core mode in floating point operations.
The Loongson 3A6000 itself has exhausted its capabilities. But the manufacturer has the opportunity to increase the number of cores with the cache size and increase the clock frequency of the chip. The manufacturer will be able to do this with the next generation of processors, 3A7000. Those will be manufactured using a 7-nm process technology, which will allow for a significant improvement in the parameters of the chip.
It seems that China's electronics industry is gradually developing. The progress is very significant. If this continues, the Chinese will be able to achieve their goals and launch large-scale production of modern chips – regardless of anyone, including the contract chip manufacturer TSMC.
Other interesting materials
