Loongson 2F is to be formally released

On October 12, i found 2 photos showing the motherboard with Loongson 2Fas its heart on Lemote BBS

(http://www.lemote.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=10336&extra=page%3D1&page=8,see post #80, #81). Foxsen, the administrator of Lemote BBS, said thatthis is just one of the Loongson 2F's future applications, a homeserver. He decribed the motherboard: "Loongson 2F (the silver chip) +AMD CS5536 south bridge + dual 1000M LAN + Sil3114 Sata + 32MB norflash." This motherboard seems to be a mini-itx, 17cm X 17cm in size,with one IDE in addition to four ESata port and one PCI.

Foxsen appologized to members on Lemote BBS that he couldn't provide anyfurther details of the chip as it is not formally released.

It is said that ST Microelectronics has started Loongson 2F's massproduction. We may expect different kinds of things with 2F inside comeout next year.

Loongson 2F finished tape-out in July and has been get through 2 monthsof heavy test. It consumes 5.6W power at 1GHz, higher than i expected,unfortunately.

Again, thanks to the friend abroad for her help to post this stuff.

say sorry to all my friends on this blog

I am more than a little sad when i realize this blog, and possibly aswell as many other blogs on blogspot, has been under strict accesscontrol in mainland. Using a free web surf abroad helps me enter thesite and confirm its existence. However, i can't login to create new posts.The situation began in this summer. I thought it wouldn't last long asGoogle China should negotiate with someones. Wrong. I just can't loginand post.Thanks to the kind help from one of my best friend outside this country,i got this chance to talk on this blog again.What i know about the Linux-only chip now:1. 2F returned, at least 1 month ago. The chips are under intensetesting now. But no details are unveiled.2. Lemote has been doing survey about Lemote Box (formally called Fulongmini PC, though i never think they are PCs) with Loongson 2F inside onhttp://www.lemote.com/table/2f.php (in Chinese). So the marketing mustbe on the way.3. For some technical questions, i suggest we had better ask on theLemote BBS.All the best

Free Pascal Compiler at its very beginning on Loongson

After weeks of silence, Linuxer on Lemote forum finally made a little progress again. "Jiao Lin Tan Suo" said earlier today that he has been porting FPC to Linux-Loongson platform for some time. He has implemented the cross-compiler as the first step, and then used non-cross-compiler running on Loongson to implement a HelloWorld.pas successfully. The compiler itself is written in Pascal, completely independent of gcc.

It is just the beginning.

C Language Interface lib of Loongson Multimedia Instruction Set

I don't know if i was making translation errors again.

jamesr, a 17-year-old student in his 2nd year of high school, has been working on C language interface for Loongson multimedia instructions for some time. On May 8, he released his 0.1 version of libmmi_ls. Although it may not perform perfect, but his job is really appreciated. He studied C language by himself 1 year ago.

64bit PMON has been solved

On May 9, 64 bit PMON on Loongson is solved. Former PMON is 32bit despite a 64bit CPU. The developers said that the advantages to use a 64bit PMON :
1. We can get access to anywhere in the 64bit space by C pointers in PMON
2. DDR can be locate to any place in PMON. (???I don't know such technical stuffs so it might be a translation mistake）
3. Tool chain is gcc 3.4.6, which is consistent to 2.6 kernel tool chain.

CF card and handwriting stroke recognition are finished

Loongson 2E has already support CF card by miniIDE-CF adapter.

Another thing should be mentioned is the stroke recognition. As Chinese is base on thousands of characters instead of tens of alphabets, stroke recognition is generally more difficult and not opensource. I am afraid that there may be a negotiation between Loongson group and other companies.

XGI V3XT and SiS315E is now supported

Officially confirmed by Loongson Technology Service Center, Beijing.

SiS315E is solved at April 20 and XGI V3XT at April 24.

Loongson 3 is expected to have 16cores

Another series of Loongson, the multi-core Loongson 3 is in designing. The developers said that they hope it will be a 16core cpu with 1.2+GHz each. The share L2 cache is 8MB.

Loongson 2F is to be taping out

The next member of Loongson 2 family, the 2F is sent to tape-out process on May 2nd, 2007. This is about 3 months later than the developers expected at the beginning of this year.

Improvements:
1. 30% faster clock frequency. We can expect for 1G+ product.
2. Comparing to 2E, 2F can saving up to 40% of the power consumption. Moreover, temperature sensor, frequency steps and other power management functions is available.
3. More integrated: DDR2 controller, 66MHz PCI/100MHz PCI-X controller, Local IO controller, GPIO, time Interrupt Controller、DMA controller and so on.
4. Smaller: 27mm x 27mm, comparing to 35 x 35 of 2E.
5. Better DFT and DFM to lower costs.

I am back

After a boring month full of college course and laboratory training, I am finally free.

Exciting things is coming soon...

64bit kernel problem may be related to RAM size

Recently I upgraded my Lemote Box to 512M main memory. 256M is indeed a little small for GNOME. As current 32bit kernel do not support memory larger than 256M (If you can solve it, just contact Lemote and get one machine!), I was forced to use 64bit kernel. It no longer freezes.

Talked with foxsen and he agrees. His Loongson laptop is with 512M memory and never dumps. But his Loongson Box with 32bit kernel did freeze once.

Waiting for explanations and solutions.

To friends who are interested in Lemote Box

If you want a Lemote Box, you'd better contact Lemote and prove that you can make good use of it, e.g. software porting. Lemote still keep a very few Lemote Boxes for super Linuxers. Lemote Box will be free of charge if you do something important . Several days ago Lemote has given a Loongson Box to a high school student as a gift for his undergoing contribution to multimedia lib, though he didn't have a purchase order. His work is try to write a lib useing Loongson Multimedia Instructions.

Another choice is to wait for better products which will come out this year.

Beryl 0.2.0 on Loongson Box

It is not amazing that youbest again made the eye-candy project running on his Lemote Box. Although it is still not very stable and many special effects are not available for some reasons, it proves the ability of the little machine.

Progressing, but a little slowly

Lemote has release a new version of Loongson-optimized mplayer and new real codecs. From the instant feedback of users it is said that there may be a 20 percent better(faster) when playing rmvb and other videos. Strangely, still some rm file cannot be played. Perhaps we still need more work.

Foxsen today says he has solved 1G RAM problem. Current PMON has bugs so that it refused to recognize some 1G RAMs correctly.

64bit kernel is another issue. Many users have encountered a serious problem that 32bit Linux system running on 64bit kernel is accidentally down. It is difficult for developers to solve such random-occurring problems. Strangely, it seems that some users never had this problem but some usually got it.

Bochs on Loongson

Youbest has ported Bochs on Loongson platform and make NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeNAS, GeeXBox, Red Flag Linux( a Chinese commericial Linux distro, I never used it) and Win98 running. The problem is Bochs is very very slow on Loongson.

Finished slackware on Loongson

'lyh' successfully ported Slackware Linux on Loongson platform today. He says xfce4 and e17 nearly no problem on Slackware-Loongson and he is compiling and testing KDE.

Waiting for his screen shot.

QEMU running Win98 on Loongson

'jun7903' posted a message on Lemote BBS early this morning, which said he had made QEMU running Windows 98 on Loongson. Although QEMU on Loongson is not fully tested, it is the first time for a Windows OS to somehow "run" on Loongson2 platform. In 2006 I also saw WinCE running on GS32i (an improved Loongson I CPU).

I don't need Windows at all, but more functions are always better when it comes to marketing.

Known Problems in Loongson Box (Part)

As a product in testing, Lemote Box satisfies my need. However, there are still problems at present which are expected to be solved in future. Some friends asked me if they can get a Lemote Box. The answer is "yes" if you are keenly looking for it and prepared for any potential annoying problem and you can do something with it. Recent posts on Lemote BBS suggest that there are still about a score of Boxes remaining.

Recent feedback from users shows problems as follows:
1. Auto switch on without pushing the power button when power supply is given.
2. No APM is present. We have to switch it off manually by pushing the power button for 5 seconds. Moreover, sometimes we must press reset button after pressing power button to switch it on.
3. There may be waves or bands on the screen. The design is not so good that electronic flows are interfering with each other.
4. Command line interface is rarely failed to be shown when pushing Ctrl+Alt+F1 in Xwindows
5. If we set screensaver to "blank screen", we sometimes can't activate the machine from being locked.
6. The box may be a little longer than it should be. This leads to that some USB device like flash disks cannot be recognized. Some user also found they have to press their audio plugs hard into the Box to make them work.
7. Current 32-bit kernel only support a main memory of 256M. Debian on Lemote Box is extremly stable at 32-bit. So far as I know, no system breakdown is reported! Some ones continuously ran the box for over a month(>720 hours), it is still in good state. But if we would like to try 512M memory we have to use 64bit kernel. Recent posts on Lemote BBS shows that 64bit kernel is not very stable with 32-bit applications.
8. The fan is noisy. CPU, graphic card and FPGA share one small fan. As no APM is available, the fan always runs and it do make some noise.

To be continued.

Control your Lemote Box when you are in bed

"Tony" has release an infrared port driver on Lemote BBS for testing. The driver enable us to control our Lemote Box with a common remote control (like those of a TV set) after a brief training.

This feature of Lemote Box, together with its size and NTSC support makes it possible that the little box be a home multimedia center.

I'll try it as soon as I go home this spring festival.

All 1000 Lemote Box has been delivered to users

By Feb 7, 2007, Lemote had sent all Lemote Box to their respective users. All fans are busy running and discussing Loongson now. No one can tell how much these users will contribute to Loongson's developing but it must be considerable.

Finished Gentoo on Loongson

"Henry", a Linuxer on Lemote BBS declared that he had ported gentoo to Loongson platform.

Loongson 2E details uncovered

The details of Loongson 2E (Godson 2E) has been published in a recent research article: Implementing a 1GHz Four-Issue Out-of-Order Execution Microprocessor in a Standard Cell ASIC Methodology

http://jcst.ict.ac.cn/content/papere.asp?lg=en&i=7101

In this paper, there is a table showing the SPEC2000 score of Loongson 2E vs PentiumIII and Pentium IV. The table is provided by "overself" on Lemote BBS.

Loongson 2E @ 1GHz achieved a peak score of 503 in both SPEC INT 2000 and SPEC FP2000 with ORC compiler, which is developed specially for Loongson.

Video for Beryl on Loongson!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elZBzu9Gdl8

Provided by Youbest.

Beryl 3D desktop on Loongson : Mission Completed!

Youbest, one of the most active Linuxers on Lemote BBS, successfully compiled and ran Beryl on Loongson Box, only two days after foxsen finished 3D driver.

Beryl is still not stable on Loongson, nevertheless, it does run.

Thanks youbest. I don't think 3D desktop can do much for our everyday work but it may attract more customers to Linux-Loongson system.

Solved 3D driver on Loongson

Foxsen, the administrator of Lemote BBS, says he has solved 3D driver for Loongson Box after one month work.

ATI didn't provide any proper driver for Loongson Box. I heard that Lemote collected some information and then used a guess-and-try method to write basic driver for R7000 before the Boxes were usable. And now foxsen further finished 3D driver.

However, currently the 3D driver doesn't fully exploit R7000's capacity which gives only 237 FPS on 24bit. Foxsen promised to improve it. Anyway, he' s really a respectable man.

200 Loongson laptops are going to be released

According to the Lemote, 200 laptops with Loongson Inside will be produced before Spring Festival(Feb. 17, 2007). However, these laptops are not for sale but for test. About 100 of them will be owned by cooperative enterprises and the rest for Lemote staffs.

The design of Lemote Box is actually blueprint of Loongson laptops. They have almost same hardware installed(Lemote Box use laptop main memory and harddisks). The Box does not have a DVD drive, which is a difference.

To my astonishment, Loongson fans seem to be even more enthusiastic about laptops than Lemote boxes, despite a possible higher price.

OpenRays for Loongson: First Linux distribution special for Loongson

OpenRays, a Chinese Linux distribution, started their support for Loongson CPU two days ago.

Rays and OpenRays (I don't know if their relationship is just like SUSE and OpenSUSE), are based on Debian GNU/Linux system. This kind of Linux are mainly designed for and used by Chinese, so it has better Chinese language support than other world-wide Linux distributions.

Because M$ Windows are so common in China, the default desktop of OpenRays looks like a Windows, making people easier to switch from Win. We can see from the screenshot(provided by "sanlunchefu" on Lemote BBS) that there is a START button on the left of bottom panel.

Notice that "$ cat /proc/cpuinfo" on Loongson box(see the terminal window in the screenshot) does not tell you the actual frequency of Loongson.

Run EIOffice2007 on Loongson Box

"Sanlunchefu"(in Chinese means "pedicab driver"), a member on Lemote BBS, said that he had made Evermore Integrated Office 2007, the latest version of EIOffice, successfully run on Loongson Box.

Written completely in Java, EIOffice is portable to Linux, including Debian GNU/Linux on Loongson CPU.

The software looks and behaves very very much like M$ office. People may feel easier to switch from M$ to Evermore. It is excellent in exporting and importing M$ office filetypes. PDF and html are also supported. Moreover, EIOffice featured a Science Editor, which allow users to edit some complex math curves or chemical symbols, etc.

However, unlike OpenOffice, EIOffice is not a free software, though it is rather cheap. I hope Lemote will negotiate with Evermore Software on this issue.

Loongson 2F may come out in 2007

Loongson 2F, a new member of Loongson CPU familiy, may come out in 2007.

According to Lemote official, Loongson 2F is planed to tape out before Chinese Spring Festival (Feb 17, 2007) if possible.

Better designed, Loongson 2F is expected faster than Loongson 2E(The CPU what I am using now) by 20％-30% with even smaller power consumption, 2W!

Meanwhile, it is said that Loongson 3, the multi-core Loongson CPU for web servers and supercomputers has been placed on developers' agenda. If Loongson 3 is successfully developed, we will enjoy multi-core performance with power consumption no more than a typical 1-core x86 CPU.

Loongson developers described a beautiful prospect for the CPU. But I think there are a lot of difficulties on their way. How can the new-born CPU compete with mainstream x86 CPUs?

Loongson Box can use TV set as monitor

These are the front and the back panels of Lemote Box.

Upper is the front panel, from left to right: 4 USB 2.0 ports, mic, phone, line out, infrared port, IDE indicator light, power indicator light, reset button, power switch.

Lower is the back panel, from left to right: PS/2 port, networking port, VGA output, S-Video output, COM, power supply(DC 12V).

The S-Video output makes it possible that TV set with NTSC mode be the monitor of Lemote Box. Currently, it supports only 800x600 resolution on TV set. But it is a good start.

Linuxers are working on genuine 64bit OS on Loongson

Youbest, lyxmoo, along with other members on Lemote BBS are now developing a genuine 64bit Linux system for Loongson. Former Debian GNU/Linux installed on Loongson Box had got a 64bit kernel but the operation system is still 32bit only.

Youbest had already finished a simple command-line 64bit Linux OS on Loongson by Jan. 12. The OS is now available for every Loongson users. On Jan. 15, lyxmoo released 64bit compiler environment for Loongson 2E.

Moreover, kingkongmao finished developing a new PMON supporting ELF64 for Loongson this morning.

Correction

In a recent post I said that float point(FP) ability of Loongson cannot be fully exploited by gcc because gcc only take use of two FP elements of total four in Loongson. That is not exactly true. Loongson Instruction Set has special instructions like multiply-add (MADD), multiply-subtract (MSUB), etc. Every FP element can execute an MADD-like instruction but gcc can not generate assembler executables with these Loongson-specific advanced instructions. As a result, one MADD will be cut into a muliplication and an addition by gcc, being executed in two steps. So the complier seems utilize only two of the four FP elements in effect.

About Loongson Box: something I must say

Loongson Box is sold at CNY 1599 (US$ 200) without monitor and keyboard/mouse. All Lemote boxes of the pilot run will be delivered to users before Chinese traditional new year, Spring Festival.

The photo is taken from "SNAiL", a friend of mine on Lemote BBS, showing a contrast between Lemote Box and regular PC.

The Box possess Loongson 2E processor of 666MHz, laptop hard disc of 40G, laptop DDR memory of 256M, VGA Card of ATI RADEON 7000M and operating system of Debian GNU/Linux Etch.

Are Loongson Boxes cheap? I don't think so. Hardwares seem to be out of date. CNY 1599 may buy a x86 PC with (perhaps) better performance. However, Loongson Box is actually NOT a PC. It is really something else which will change your ways of thinking. Small and lovely, it consumes little power and saves a lot money every month. It is indeed cheap in a sense. And I bet things will get better in future.

Are all loongson first users experts on Linux? NO. Some users never used any distribution of Linux before. I am a newbie to Linux, too. I just gave up Windows half a year ago. Both regular users and experts will contribute to Loongson's growth.

Is Loongson "Chinese Pentium 4"? At present, the answer is NOT. Loongson 2E generally performs about as same as PentiumIII at same frequency but much faster in pure computing works because it is an RISC. Specially optimized L2E@1G does achieve what Pentium4 1.3G does in SPEC CPU2000 but ordinary L2E@666 doesn't. Loongson is now not as good as some media trumpet but is much better than some rumors said. That's the fact, but I believe that it will be Chinese Pentium 4 in near future.

Loongson@home!

After days of boring waiting, I've received my Loongson Box! No.41 of the first 1000. I'm trying to find any problems. Yes, there's one. The four USB ports are too close. I posted the problem on Lemote BBS and they promised to improve the design.

In general it works well. Better than I expected. Debian GNU/Linux (Etch) and most applications run fluently on Loongson. The lovely box satisfies all the basic needs for a regular user.

However, to be honest, Loongson somehow has a poor performance when running applications which have not been optimized for Loongson, e.g. OpenOffice2.0. I need more than a dozen seconds to open an odp file(something like M$ PowerPoint).

Nevertheless, Loongson Box does work and live up to its reputation and fans' trust. It beats up all rumors.

Users have received Loongson PC

About a score of Loongson users had received their ordered Lemote Box by Jan 4th. They are all cheering in Lemote BBS. Everyone is congratuating them and just cannot conceal envy.

I'm waiting for my Loongson. Jiangsu is too far from here.

A piece of news about purchase orders of Lemote Box

Original from:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-loongson-pcs-receive-stunning-orders-/2006/12/11/2155723.htm

Loongson PCs Receive Stunning Orders

(SinoCast Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) BEIJING, Dec 11, 2006 (SinoCast via COMTEX) --Loongson PCs, with China's independently developed CPU, have received thousands of orders within one week after the developer started to accept purchase orders.

Jiangsu Lemote Technology Corporation Limited, a joint venture between Jaingsu Menglan Group Corporation and the Institute of Computing Technology under Chinese Academy of Sciences, takes charge of the research and production of Loongson PCs.

The computer is installed with Linux operating system. It can handle operations like Internet surfing and sending and receiving e-mails. However, programs like Ourgame and QQ game that are supported only by windows cannot be played.

Loongson PC is installed with 2E CPU. It is sold at CNY 1,599 per unit excluding the monitor, keyboard and mouse. The first 1,000 Loongson PCs were ordered as soon as it was launched.

From www.nbd.com.cn, Page 1, Friday, December 08, 2006
info@SinoCast.Com

Copyright (C) 2006 SinoCast, All rights reserved

Confirmed: Lemote boxes are going to be released on Jan 2, 2007

Official news:
http://www.lemote.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=1988&extra=page%3D1

Lemote is finishing assembling Loongson mini-PCs and They are going to deliver 200 Lemote Boxes to the most enthusiastic Loongson fans on Jan 2, 2007. The other 800 will be sent later.

According to the officials, every Lemote Boxes is assigned a unique serial numbers ranging from 00001 to 01000. Who will be the lucky user of 00001?

Debian GNU/Linux show on Lemote Box using Loongson 2E

This is a brief video clip. I'm sorry for the quality.

Debian GNU/Linux on Lemote Box

Loongson 2E: Facts on its performance

Actual performance of the China-made CPU, Loongson, is still in question. Many(maybe a majority of) Chinese themselves don't think Loongson can catch up or just somehow competitive with Intel or AMD one day in the future. Rationality is not flooded by patriotism in this case. "Too slow! Pentium III 667 came out many years ago!" A customer said when a reporter ask him if he would choose Loongson.

It is true that Loongson is currently not comparable to any mainstream Intel or AMD products. Their x86 CISC CPUs has a long and glorious history, a wide software support and, most important, innumerable users. It is always difficult for any user to change from a popular platform to a uncommon one. What is worse, Windows will never be running on the CPU! The new-born baby Loongson has so long a way to go before it becomes a giant.

Software is another issue. I'll only concentrate on hareware performance. Loongson 2E is designed for 1GHz frequency but failed to run stably under that condition for some technical problem. Normally, L2E can run at 600-800MHz with ease and is released as 660MHz in Lemote Box.

Loongson official declared that L2E@1GHz achieved a score of 500 under test of SPEC CPU2000. What does this mean?
###################################
CINT2000：
Advanced Micro Devices ASUS A7V Motherboard 1.2GHz Athlon processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 409 458
Advanced Micro Devices ASUS A7V Motherboard, 1.3GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 438 491
Advanced Micro Devices Asus A7M266-D Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) MP 2000+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 638 662
Advanced Micro Devices Asus A7M266-D Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) MP 2400+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 737 766
Advanced Micro Devices Epox 8KHA+ Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1700+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 633 656
Advanced Micro Devices Epox 8KHA+ Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1800+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 648 671
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard 1.2GHz Athlon processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 443 496
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.33GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 482 539
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.4GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 495 554
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1500+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 556 577
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1600+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 572 595
Advanced Micro Devices Tyan Thunder K7 Motherboard, 1.2GHz Athlon MP Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 495 522
Advanced Micro Devices Tyan Thunder K7 Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) MP 1500+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 534 554
Advanced Micro Devices Tyan Thunder K7 Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) MP 1600+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 550 571
Advanced Micro Devices Tyan Thunder K7 Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) MP 1800+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 587 609
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard (1.3 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 475 486
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard (1.4 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 498 512
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard (1.5 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 526 539
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0 GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 402 408
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0B GHz, Intel Pentium III proc 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 452 454
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0B GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 451 457
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.1 GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 421 427
Intel Corporation Intel D850EMV2 motherboard (1.5 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 560 562
Intel Corporation Intel D850EMV2 motherboard (1.6 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 584 588

CFP2000：
Advanced Micro Devices ASUS A7V Motherboard, 1.2GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 328 352
Advanced Micro Devices ASUS A7V Motherboard, 1.3GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 348 374
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.2GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 387 417
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.33GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 414 445
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, 1.4GHz Athlon Processor 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 426 458
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1500+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 494 536
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1600+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 504 547
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1700+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 535 580
Advanced Micro Devices Gigabyte GA-7DX Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1800+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 542 588
Advanced Micro Devices Epox 8KHA+ Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1700+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 561 604
Advanced Micro Devices Epox 8KHA+ Motherboard, AMD Athlon (TM) XP 1800+ 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 572 615
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0 GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 254 264
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0B GHz, Intel Pentium III proc 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 303 292
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.0B GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 297 310
Intel Corporation Intel D815EEA2 motherboard (1.1 GHz, Pentium III processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 258 268
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard(1.3 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 503 511
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard(1.4 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 529 538
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard(1.5 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 549 558
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard(1.6 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 578 587
Intel Corporation Intel D850GB motherboard(1.7 GHz, Pentium 4 processor) 1 core, 1 chip, 1 core/chip 598 608

It seems that L2E@1G equals to P4@1.3G. But here are some problems:
1. If we produce Loongson 2E @1GHz, rate of spoiled products will be too high to accept.
2. L2E reaches 1GHz only when the core voltage is 1.4V, which is larger than normal 1.2V.
3. The compiler is not GCC or something also common, but a special one developed by China Academy of Sciences.
####################################

Some people also test L2E@660MHz using simple Unixbench.

************************************
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 4.1.0)
System -- Linux tony-debian 2.6.18.1ict #13 Mon Nov 20 21:58:01 CST 2006 mips GNU/Linux
Start Benchmark Run: Sat Dec 16 16:16:51 CST 2006
1 interactive users.
16:16:51 up 47 min, 1 user, load average: 0.14, 0.04, 0.01
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Dec 15 21:07 /bin/sh -> bash
/bin/sh: symbolic link to `bash'
/dev/hda3 7700700 6551524 757996 90% /
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1953973.7 lps (10.0 secs, 10 samples)Double-Precision Whetstone 399.8 MWIPS (10.0 secs, 10 samples)
System Call Overhead 279138.8 lps (10.0 secs, 10 samples)
Pipe Throughput 210600.9 lps (10.0 secs, 10 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 86021.1 lps (10.0 secs, 10 samples)
Process Creation 2235.3 lps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
Execl Throughput 727.9 lps (29.7 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 236110.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 116200.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 67028.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 98410.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 44905.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 27958.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 44905.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 27958.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 390039.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 181774.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 102845.0 KBps (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 826.6 lpm (60.0 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 116.0 lpm (60.0 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (16 concurrent) 58.7 lpm (60.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = short) 439655.8 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = int) 456636.0 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = long) 456637.3 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = float) 178354.9 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = double) 150313.9 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithoh 66258450.9 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)C Compiler Throughput 206.2 lpm (60.0 secs, 3 samples)
Dc: sqrt(2) to 99 decimal places 77466.7 lpm (30.0 secs, 3 samples)
Recursion Test--Tower of Hanoi 16793.9 lps (20.0 secs, 3 samples)
INDEX VALUES
TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX

Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 1953973.7 167.4
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 399.8 72.7
Execl Throughput 43.0 727.9 169.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 67028.0 169.3
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 27958.0 168.9
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 102845.0 177.3
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 210600.9 169.3
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 86021.1 215.1
Process Creation 126.0 2235.3 177.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 116.0 193.3
System Call Overhead 15000.0 279138.8 186.1
=========
FINAL SCORE 164.8

*******************************

This is about what PentiumIII at same frequency can get.

Here are still problem:
Arithmetic Test (type = short) 439655.8 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = int) 456636.0 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = long) 456637.3 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = float) 178354.9 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = double) 150313.9 lps (10.0 secs, 3 samples)

FP results are unbelievably low. Loongson official explains that L2E has 4 FP apparatus which give it ability to do 4 double FP or 8 FP computing in one clock period. But current compiler (gcc) can only use two of them.

In addition, I heard that external hardwares such as north bridge, south bridge, main memory, etc. also restrict Loongson in terms of compatibility.

All in all, we can just expect adequate much from Loongson2E. L2E is far from brilliant, yet the whole bluescript of Loongson is great. They have big potential. They are being improved. Given better hardware and software supports, Loongson 2F and Loongson3 should satisfy us more.

Real Audio/Video can now be played on Loongson PC

According to the Official BBS of Lemote, software developers finished transplantation of RV decoding on Loongson CPU on Dec 15, 2006. Now MPlayer can play video in RMVB format.

Loongson Manufacturer Calling for Software Supports

One of the Loongson manufacturer, Lemote, is now calling for software supports from all its first users.

Loongson CPU is not built on x86 but on an altered MIPS III 64-bit architecture, which is particularly named "Loongson Instruction Set". As a result, Windows and many other popular softwares based on Win platforms are impossible to run on it. Even most distributions of Linux and their softwares are still waiting for tranplantation.

Lemote officially now provides two OS for customers to choose. One is Debian Linux and the other is a new-born distribution of Linux called "OpenRays" beta version. They guarantee that the two OS will be run almost smooth and easy. They also admit that there might be some small problems. Softwares are still to be transplanted and optimized for Loongsons. There is a long way to go for Loongson, especially on softwares.

"We wish all users carry forward the spirit of opensource community and we will appreciate any help." said by Lemote official. They promised to pay a reasonable money for Loongson-based software developers. This is also one of the reasons why they choose 600 out of thousands customers by their techinal backgrounds. Another reason is the limited capacity of the production.

The following is what they would like Linuxers to do:
Origally posted here:

http://www.lemote.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=2216&extra=page%3D1

1. Operation System Transplantation
Famous Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Gentoo, Suse, Fedora, and so on.s
All kinds of liveCDs
Embedded systems: eCos, ucOS/II, vxworks, winCE(?!)
FreeBSD or NetBSD
Pure 64-bit OS
Prelink support

2. Specific Applications:
Vehicular PC:GPS, video monitor, multimedia
IPTV(maybe mythTV, GeeXbox) and Set-Top-Box
Network computers: E-library, E-classroom
Education informatization
Rural informatization
Others

3. Software improvement:
Bootloader
Linux kernel
Compilers optimized for Loongson Instruction Set
Better multimedia support
Java Virtual Machine
Openoffice
Firefox plugins
Eyecandy
initNG or other fast boot supports
Oprofile and other tools like it
Other software for Loongson achitecture

Some tasks (especially in part1 and part2) are virtually impossible for single person to finish. Besides Linuxers who interested in Loongson, Lemote official will also participate in the development. Any one who would like to help improving Loongson's performance should contact Lemote official to avoid repeated work. Lemote promise to encourage all fans who contribute considerably to Loongson, for example, a free Lemote box.

Lemote has allowed me a Loongson-based PC

On Dec 8, 2006, Lemote has decided who will be owners of the first 100 Fulong mini-PC. I am one of the lucky users.

Fulong Mini-PC is also generally called "Lemote Box" or Loongson Box. "Lemote", meaning "the dream of Loong", is the manufacturer and "Box" is refered to its size, 18 x 14 x 3.7cm.

The CPU of Lemote Box is China-made Loongson (originally called "Godson") 2E 666MHz. Although the frequency is low but it actually performs better than PentiumIII. The Loongson CPU is a 64-bit MIPS III RISC processor. Unlike x86 CPUs, it works under only 5-7W power(4.07W in recent test), a small fraction of AMD or Intel products which generally need several dozens of Watts.

Main memory and HDD for Lemote Box are those formerly designed for laptops, so the total power consumption is very small. Lemote Boxes may be the best choice for citizens who would like to protect environment of our Earth.

The first batch released includes 1000 Lemote Boxes in all, 400 of which for co-operative enterprises and 600 for Loongson fans. All of them are used mainly for a testing purpose. Lemote said that they hope every user who get a Lemote box help in developing Loongson products.

Lemote declared that they had started to accept purchase orders for the 1000 miniPC at Nov. 26. Total number of orders runs over several thousands in one week. Lemote is then forced to choose some users from all.

Since Loongson is not a x86 CPU, in no way can it support M$ Windows. Software becomes the highest barrier for Loongson's road.