Loongson (English: Loongson, formerly known as GODSON) is a general CPU designed by Hu Weiwu, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc. It adopts MIPS and LoongISA® reduced instruction set architecture, and buys out the MIPS instruction set patent. Godson-1 series are embedded domain chips, which have been used by many enterprises. The Loongson 2 series has a maximum speed of 1GHz, and is used in low and mid-range fields such as thin client and industrial control. Loongson No.3 series launched its finished product in 2010, which is used in desktop, server, supercomputer, industrial control and other fields. At present, the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences also has a plan to develop supercomputers with Loongson as their processors.
godson 1
Please note that the Loongson No.1 here is not the same product as the godson-1 released by Loongson Zhongke in 2009. On August 19th, 2001, the logic design of Loongson No.1 was put into operation on FPGA platform. Therefore, August 19th was designated as the birthday of Godson. Overall performance of is lower than that of IntelPentiumII. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Hu Weiwu’s mentor, Mr. Xia Peisu, engaged in computer business, “Loongson No.1” was named “Xia 50”.
Godson-1 series
In April 2010, Loongson Zhongke was formally established and settled in Loongson Industrial Park, Industrial Park, Institute of Computing Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun Environmental Protection Technology Demonstration Park, Daoxianghu Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China. After the establishment of the company, Loongson investigated the market and re-created the low-end embedded product line-godson-1. At present, the known products are Godson 1A, 1B, 1C300/1C101 (fingerprint biometric application chip), 1D (special chip for water meter), 1G (special chip for audio) and 1H (high temperature resistant chip for oil drilling).
Loongson 2 series
The original version of Loongson 2 series used 0.13 micron process technology. There are 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F/2F-1000, 2G/2GQ, 2H, 2I (2GP) and 2K1000/2K2000 models known in Loongson 2 series. Godson 2 processors are all 64-bit processors. The early model is a 64-bit GS464 series processor core executed out of order with 4 launches. Later, the new processor is upgraded to adopt GS464E processor core. Loongson 2K processor is a 64-bit dual-core processor with GS264 processor cores that execute out of order. Loongson 2GQ is a 4-core processor.
Loongson 3 series
Godson 3 processors are all 4-launch 64-bit multi-core processors. At present, except Godson 3B1500 processor with 8 cores, all other Godson 3 processors are 4 cores. Godson 3C5000 processor will increase the number of processor cores to 16. The microstructure of Godson 3 processor is divided into GS464,GS464E, GS464V and GS464EV(GS464v).
Loongson bridge series
Provide the North-South Bridge function for Loongson processors, with 7A1000 and 7A2000 models. 2000 GPU is self-developed.
Loongson’s undisclosed hidden processor
In addition to the processors of godson-1, No.2 and No.3 series, some experimental processors have been developed during the development of Loongson, but they are not in mass production, and some even have no streaming chips.
Godson-T
In the development process, Loongson processor once wanted to be used as a supercomputer, hoping to develop a 64-core many-core processor named Godson-T. Godson-T was developed by the Advanced Microsystems Research Group of Computing, and was already verified in RTL in 2008. The RTL code was written in December 2008. In May, 2010, GodSon-T’s prototype chip, 16-core GodSon-TI, was delivered to the streaming chip, adopting a 130nm process. On October 17th, 2010, the debugging was successful. Godson-T processor R&D was suspended because Godson shifted its research and development focus to improving the single-core performance of the processor.
Godson-X
All mass-produced processors of Loongson adopt MIPS instruction set. However, due to the x86 instruction set used in the mainstream desktop processor market, Godson can’t use x86 instruction set due to intellectual property rights and patents. In order to realize the compatibility with the existing ecology, the Loongson 3A series implements binary translation instructions for x86 instructions and arm instructions. In the process of research and development, Godson-X, a prototype processor with x86 instruction set, was developed by Godson.
Longmeng No.1 (Aerospace Longmeng)
Zhongke Longmeng (now renamed Aerospace Longmeng) developed Longmeng-1 SOC by using the early IP core of godson-1, which was used in Fiscalcontroller register. The special chip for tax-controlled SoC uses Godson 1 processor core as MCU and AHB (The Advanced High Performance Bus)+APB (The Advanced Peripheral Bus) as on-chip bus.
GS32I-400 SOC
GS32I is a SOC chip designed according to Godson No.2, clocked at 400MHz, integrated with 16K data cache and 16K instruction cache, with a package size of 19mmx19mm and a 424-pin BGA package. Internally, PCI controller, two 100-megabit network controllers, USB, AC97 controller, PCMCIA controller, SDRAM controller and EPROM controller are integrated.
Personal computer products with Loongson
Since the release of Loongson 2F, several notebook computers have adopted this low-power processor, such as Jiangsu Longmeng Yilong notebook computer; EBT700, a notebook computer of Shenzhen Yitong Computer Co., Ltd., has a resolution of 800×480. The Loongson 2F processor is adopted, and the main frequency is 1GHz. Longmeng, a Gdium notebook computer produced by EMTEC, also designed all-in-one computers, mini computers, desktops and other products using Godson 2F. After entering the 3A/3B era, Longmeng continued to design and manufacture many Loongson desktops, all-in-one machines, notebooks and other devices. At the same time, many other manufacturers have released personal computers using Godson processors.
Internet and server
Loongson processor is widely used in server, storage infrastructure, firewall and other fields. For example, Wanyou U-NAS-II uses the Godson 2F processor. Tianxin firewall adopts Loongson 3A series processors.
Embedded product
Loongson processor has been used in embedded products or devices such as smart TV, TV set-top box, traffic light control, etc.
artificial satellite
After 2013, Loongson began to focus on anti-cosmic radiation chips used by artificial satellites, because the chips for satellites actually don’t need the high-performance and low-nanometer precision process of civilian chips. The CPU performance of many satellites is actually not as good as that of a gaming table machine, but it pays great attention to stability and the ability to resist cosmic temperature difference, radiation and solar wind. In 2017, three Beidou satellite positioning stars have used Godson chips to operate in orbit.
