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According to reports, the Loongson 9A1000 graphics card began development in 2023, and the R&D work has now been completed, with tape-out scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
The 9A1000 is Loongson’s first graphics card, marking an important milestone for this Chinese manufacturer, which has previously focused primarily on processors (CPUs). The company positions the 9A1000 as an entry-level graphics card that supports AI acceleration. Therefore, it does not compete in the same market segment as another Chinese graphics card, the Lishan G100, which is said to rival the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060.
Loongson has kept details under wraps, only hinting that its performance is similar to that of the Radeon RX 550 released eight years ago.
Recent news about the 9A1000 indicates that Loongson has reduced the area of each GPU basic computing unit by 20%. The manufacturer also claims to have increased the operating frequency of the 9A1000 by 25% while achieving a 70% power optimization in light-load scenarios. In terms of functional support, the 9A1000 is compatible with OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL ES 3.2 APIs.
According to Loongson, the performance of the 9A1000 can be up to four times faster than the integrated graphics LG200 in the 2K3000 processor. It also offers up to 40 TOPS of AI computing power, slightly lower than the 50 TOPS of the XDNA 2 NPU in the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ (codenamed Strix Halo) chip.
The 9A1000 is not Loongson’s only graphics card project. The company is also developing the 9A2000, which is said to be up to 10 times faster than the 9A1000 and can reach the performance level of the GeForce RTX 2080. Loongson also plans to launch the 9A3000 as a successor to the 9A2000, but no specifications have been released yet.
Currently, many Chinese companies and startups have entered the graphics card industry. However, many of these companies ultimately fail and exit the market. Therefore, the news we hear often comes from a few more representative manufacturers, such as Birun, Moer Thread, and in recent years, Loongson and Lishan Technology.
Source: Daily IC
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