There’s the two behemoth architectures, x86 and ARM, and we probably all own one or more devices using each. Then there’s the eternally up-and-coming RISC-V, which, so far, seems to be having a lot of trouble outgrowing its experimental, developmental stage. There’s a fourth, though, which is but a footnote in the west, but might be more popular in its country of origin, China: LoongArch (I’m ignoring IBM’s POWER, since there hasn’t been any new consumer hardware in that space for a long, long time).
Wesley Moore got his hands on a mini PC built around the Loongson 3A6000 processor, and investigated what it’s like to run Linux on it. He opted for Chimera Linux, which supports LoongArch, and the installation process feels more like Linux on x86 than Linux on ARM, which often requires dedicated builds and isn’t standardised. Sadly, Wayland had issues on the machine, but X.org worked just fine, and it seems virtually all Chimera Linux packages are supported for a pretty standard desktop Linux experience.
Performance of this chip is rather mid, at best.
The Loongson-3A6000 is not particularly fast or efficient. At idle it consumes about 27W and under load it goes up to 65W.
[…]So, overall it’s not a particularly efficient machine, and while the performance is nothing special it does seem readily usable. Browsing JS heavy web applications like Mattermost and Mastodon runs fine. Subjectively it feels faster than all the Raspberry Pi systems I’ve used (up to a Pi 400).
↫ Wesley Moore
I’ve been fascinated by LoongArch for years, and am waiting to pounce on the right offer for LoongArch’s fastest processor, the 3C6000, which comes in dual-socket configurations for a maximum total of 128 cores and 256 threads. The 3C6000 should be considerably faster than the low-end 3A6000 in the mini PC covered by this article. I’m a sucker for weird architectures, and it doesn’t get much weirder than LoongArch.
I live in Thailand for almost 20 years now, which is right on the edge between China and the US. I do find LoongArch fascinating. Not that I care much about the technical details, I just need a fast, cheap, robust and efficient computer.
My fascination comes from the competition of the political views and systems: The West has been spelled doomed and dead for years in many TikTok videos. Here the decadent and degenerated West, there the disciplined and sophisticated Chinese people who just had a period of bad luck.
In the car sector, it almost looks like TikTok is right and my next car will likely be a BYD. (We have BYD stores now everywhere and Solarpower is cheap. Almost no Mazdas left.)
But on things like LoongArch it shows how far away they still are. And maybe, our Western chaos and liberalism is indeed the creativity, that sparks the 1 bright idea out of 99 stupid attempts, that can maintain a lead. Maybe there is some ingenuity that can only flourish in a free society, but not enforced by military discipline.
I genuinely hope for that..
And fuck Trump, who works so hard to destroy that hope and makes China look appealing.
Amen
Andreas Reichel,
Cars is one sector which is dominated by special interests and heavy government regulations.
As good as BYD cars are, they are most likely illegal to build and operate in most western countries. Though EU is cutting them some “slack” and easing regulations for “trade deals”, but they are shooting themselves at the foot while not allowing domestic production to catch up.
US of A is worse. Our rules have written in increasing motor efficiencies. But that is tied to the body weight. In other words, as manufacturers hit the practical limits of efficiency, the only way they can offer anything on the market is continuously enlarging them. More weight => more emissions possible (A over B, simple fractions)
Why don’t we see small trucks anymore? Why is everything an SUV or crossover? Because of “CAFE”
I would hope someone with two brain cells comes in charge and says: “you know what, these extreme efficiency goals are counter-productive, as larger cars cause 4th power based damage on the roads, and have more tire and brake expenses. Those are much more damaging to the environment. Let’s roll back, and have 1500cc cars again.”
But it would immediately be countered by “environmentalist” (which I assume are paid by the petrol lobby at this time)
In the US it is not illegal to own and operate Chinese EVs. But they are heavily tariffed and taxed and not available. Trump was a paid off by the gas companies and so is removing all gov’t incentives for renewable power and EVs. The US had a political backlash against EVs from the Republican party which seems to be engaged in a race to the bottom of stupidity and ideological purity. Tesla was very popular until Elon went crazy. I think the US auto industry is doomed. The world is moving to EVs but Americans won’t but them in the US. Gas powered vehicles became a rallying point for Republicans. Pretty bad.
AndrewZ,
I don’t think that is true. At least on public roads (whatever you do in your backyard is a different matter)
Even European cars that don’t have US models have to go through high scrutiny. Those NHTSA and other tests the manufacturers do? You have to do a version of them yourself. And most collectors just get limited permits for “show” cars which can be driven a certain amount per year (max 5,000 miles?) and such. And costs tens thousands of dollars.
And that is second+ car. The first car needs to go though crash test, which costs hundreds of thousands, or more.
Worse? “Connected cars”, would ban almost any Chinese EV that has remote connection capabilities (basically all that one would want) They have to replace the OS and internal components to match US Department of Commerce rules. (You can of course rip out all electronics before import)
Without having the entire pipeline approved, yes, they would be pretty much illegal to operate on the roads.
I too have been curious about Loongson since it was first announced. I don’t think Loongson ever has to beat Intel/AMD to be successful. It just has to be ‘good enough’. It is probably good enough now to run a basic laptop. It will probably get better in the future.
> our Western chaos and liberalism is indeed the creativity, that sparks the 1 bright idea out of 99 stupid attempts
I agree with your ideas on creativity, but I would not count China that far out of the race. With RISC-V, they are already starting to produce chips that are viable for them even without access to western tech. I expect them to catch-up or even pass us:
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/qualcomms-ventana-acquisition-points-to-a-long-term-risc-v-strategy
I’ve seen benchmarks of LoongArch against Intel/AMD/Apple M CPUs and it’s a pretty slow CPU, regardless if low-end or top-end model. The Intel/AMD/Apple ones consistently beat it in every benchmark I’ve seen.
I believe they exist to ensure digital sovereignty for China, benchmarks cannot capture that metric very well.
You are not wrong but there is more to it: The GDR has had an advanced Microtech industry (Robotron) that supplied the whole Eastern block. We basically stole samples from the west and tried to reverse engineer them. This was so expensive that it contributed to our bankruptcy and the fall of the GDR.
So while I believe that Sovereignty IS important, it should be achieved on a competitive level and the fact that China with all its resources has not come up with more yet, tells a story.
The Asianometry youtube channel has a fascinating documentary on the GDR’s semiconductor efforts. I recommend it.
I see Asianometry mentioned, have an imaginary upvote.
> the eternally up-and-coming RISC-V, which, so far, seems to be having a lot of trouble
I feel like this comment is poorly timed.
https://milkv.io/jupiter2
https://sipeed.com/k3
The K3 is a bit slower than a Pi 5 single-thread but faster multi-threaded. And it has 60 TOPS of AI performance. With 1024 bit vector extensions and virtualization support as well, it competes very well with ARM9 and x86-64 v4 for features.
It will run Ubuntu 26.04 out of the box and many other Linux distros as well.
https://canonical.com/blog/spacemit-announces-availability-of-ubuntu-on-k3-k1-series
This means that RISC-V has already mostly caught up with ARM in terms of software ecosystem (at least for Linux).
And you can get it as a Framework Laptop Mainboard if you want:
https://deepcomputing.io/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii-unveiled-at-fosdem-powered-by-spacemit-k3-for-framework-laptop-13/
But the real milestone will be the Tenstorrent Ascalon-X which is slated to arrive in silicon as Atlantis in Q2. The Ascalon-X is expected to be about as fast as Ryzen 5. That makes it faster than anything available from ARM I believe:
https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/riscvsummit2025/e2/Unleash%20your%20RISC-V%20Future%20with%20Tenstorrent%E2%80%99s%20High%20Performance%20Ascalon%20RISC-V%20Processor%20-%20Now%20Available%21%20-%20Troy%20Jones%2C%20Tenstorrent.pdf
Of course, this is still a few months out so we will see. Maybe it will be worse than I expect.
However, x86-64 is only being advanced by AMD and Intel and only in the United States. LoongArch is only a thing in China. And while ARM themselves are only one company, ARM chips are also being designed by Qualcomm, Amazon, and of course Apple. But RISC-V chips are being designed by dozens of companies in China, in the US, in India, and in Europe. And the reason so many countries are investing in RISC-V is the same reason China created LoongArch–sovereignty.
In my view, RISC-V will “catch up” with LoongArch and ARM (from ARM) this year. It will have evolved much faster than ARM did and, on Linux, And it seems likely to outrun them both after that. It remains to be seen if it can catch x86-64, Apple Silicon, or Elite X. But “eternally up and coming” hardly seems fair.
[ reposting to get around filters ]
> the eternally up-and-coming RISC-V, which, so far, seems to be having a lot of trouble
I feel like this comment is poorly timed.
https://milkv.io/jupiter2
https://sipeed.com/k3
The K3 is a bit slower than a Pi 5 single-thread but faster multi-threaded. And it has 60 TOPS of AI performance. With 1024 bit vector extensions and virtualization support as well, it competes very well with ARM9 and x86-64 v4 for features.
It will run Ubuntu 26.04 out of the box and many other Linux distros as well.
https://canonical.com/blog/spacemit-announces-availability-of-ubuntu-on-k3-k1-series
This means that RISC-V has already mostly caught up with ARM in terms of software ecosystem (at least for Linux).
And you can get it as a [ name of laptop maker redacted to satisfy filters ] Laptop Mainboard if you want:
https://deepcomputing.io/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii-unveiled-at-fosdem-powered-by-spacemit-k3-for-framework-laptop-13/
But the real milestone will be the Tenstorrent Ascalon-X which is slated to arrive in silicon as Atlantis in Q2. The Ascalon-X is expected to be about as fast as Ryzen 5. That makes it faster than anything available from ARM I believe:
https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/riscvsummit2025/e2/Unleash%20your%20RISC-V%20Future%20with%20Tenstorrent%E2%80%99s%20High%20Performance%20Ascalon%20RISC-V%20Processor%20-%20Now%20Available%21%20-%20Troy%20Jones%2C%20Tenstorrent.pdf
Of course, this is still a few months out so we will see. Maybe it will be worse than I expect.
However, x86-64 is only being advanced by AMD and Intel and only in the United States. LoongArch is only a thing in China. And while ARM themselves are only one company, ARM chips are also being designed by Qualcomm, Amazon, and of course Apple. But RISC-V chips are being designed by dozens of companies in China, in the US, in India, and in Europe. And the reason so many countries are investing in RISC-V is the same reason China created LoongArch–sovereignty.
In my view, RISC-V will “catch up” with LoongArch and ARM (from ARM) this year. It will have evolved much faster than ARM did and, on Linux, And it seems likely to outrun them both after that. It remains to be seen if it can catch x86-64, Apple Silicon, or Elite X. But “eternally up and coming” hardly seems fair.