Loongson aims for Fully Independent CPUs, free from foreign tech
China's chipmaker Loongson (龙芯中科) has reaffirmed its commitment to developing CPUs that do not rely on any foreign licenses or supply chains. According to Vice President Wang Songyu, the company is focusing on CPUs that serve strategic national needs and can perform regardless of export restrictions.Loongson highlights that several major technological achievements listed in China's 20th Party Congress report already use its CPUs, challenging the assumption that domestic-only semiconductor design must be inefficient or lagging.
In the Hubei provincial "information‑innovation" (信创) market, Loongson's terminal‑CPU shipments have exceeded 20,000 units, placing the company among the top vendors in the region. In Beijing's 2025 centralized procurement of terminal devices, Loongson‑based products captured about 63% share.
A key product is the 3C6000 series processor, which Loongson says is a completely indigenous design-it uses no foreign‑licensed instruction sets or IP cores. The 3C6000 is built on the LA664 architecture (shared with its 3A6000 desktop chip) and supports configurations up to 16 cores / 32 threads on a single (or via multi‑chip packaging up to 64 cores / 128 threads). It supports four‑channel DDR4‑3200 memory, up to 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes, and high‑performance domestic encryption algorithms such as SM3, with bandwidths exceeding 20 Gbps.
Based on internal testing, Loongson claims that the 16‑core 3C6000/S can match the performance of an Intel Xeon 4314, while the 32‑core version (3C6000/D) compares to an Intel Xeon 6338 in multi‑threaded workloads.
In short, Loongson is positioning itself as a key player in China's push for full semiconductor autonomy-an effort that could have broader significance amid global tech and trade tensions.
