Loongson Abandons All US Technology and Develops the Indigenous LoongArch Instruction Set

Loongson is one of the most autonomous domestically developed Chinese chips in recent years; it supported the Beidou satellite launched in 2015 and now announces that it will abandon all US technology and develop a completely Chinese instruction set called LoongArch, moving a step closer to full self‑control.

Loongson decides to abandon all US technology

Historically, China has relied on US technology for chip instruction sets, purchasing ARM architecture licenses, and the uncertain future of ARM makes continued reliance risky.

Although Loongson has a high degree of independence—writing its own source code and designing its own processor cores—its instruction set LoongISA is derived from the US‑origin MIPS architecture, which remains a potential uncontrollable factor.

Recent media reports indicate that Loongson is determined to completely discard all previously used US technology and plans to develop LoongArch, an instruction set fully based on Chinese technology that is compatible with both MIPS and the LoongISA extensions derived from MIPS.

LoongArch is a brand‑new instruction set comprising 337 base instructions, 10 virtual‑machine extensions, 176 binary‑translation extensions, 1,024 128‑bit vector extensions, and 1,018 256‑bit vector extensions, totaling 2,565 native instructions; other architectures such as MIPS, x86, ARM, and RISC‑V will run via binary emulation, with MIPS being the most similar and therefore more efficient.

In April 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US government prohibited the export of certain technologies to Chinese facilities involved in supercomputing, a blow to Intel and other hardware vendors and adding another layer to the US‑China tech dispute.

The export ban, announced on February 18 (Chinese New Year) but only reported on April 9, listed four Chinese institutions—National University of Defense Technology, the National Supercomputing Center in Changsha, Tianjin, and Guangzhou—as restricted entities.

The US government claimed these institutions were involved in activities that violated US national security or foreign policy interests, citing examples such as the use of US‑origin multicore boards and processors in the Tianhe‑1A and Tianhe‑2 systems, which were believed to be used for nuclear activities.

Any US company wishing to sell related technology to the four listed Chinese entities must first obtain an export license, which is typically denied for policy reasons, effectively making the ban a de‑facto prohibition.

Given today’s increasingly complex international environment, the Loongson architecture has become especially important, and fully domestic, self‑developed technology is seen as the most reliable path forward.

Alphabet Chairman participated in founding MIPS 35 years ago

John Hennessy, a Stanford professor, former Stanford president, Turing Award winner, and current Alphabet chairman, helped found MIPS 35 years ago; the architecture he co‑created continues to be used worldwide.

During the 2018‑2019 escalation of the US‑China trade war, MIPS core technology was licensed to Shanghai Xinlianxin Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. through a series of complex transactions involving offshore entities.

Insiders say Shanghai Xinlianxin now controls all MIPS licenses for Chinese customers, both old and new, and holds the rights to develop derivative technologies based on MIPS, with the Chinese‑side license sales valued at about US$60 million.

After MIPS parent company Wave Computing entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, the company’s lawyers expressed confidence that the new management team is compliant with export, import, and foreign‑investment regulations.

According to Reuters, since the US tightened restrictions on Chinese investment in American tech startups at the end of 2018, licensing agreements and offshore entities have become the most popular channels for technology transfer, a strategy that MIPS has also adopted.

Generally, licensing transactions are not subject to CFIUS review as long as they are not intended to evade legal restrictions and comply with US export‑control laws, meaning they usually pose no illegal risk.

Michael Brown, a senior technology executive at the US Department of Defense’s innovation office, warned that China is using joint ventures or licensing agreements to transfer technology without maintaining long‑term partnerships with US partners, urging careful scrutiny of such agreements.

CFIUS has not responded to questions about these transactions or provided further comment on the MIPS technology transfer.

MIPS traded multiple times, background is complex

Court documents show that Wave Computing filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late April after a financing deal for MIPS was withdrawn; however, existing agreements with Chinese companies, such as CIP, remain valid, and MIPS technology continues to be licensed to Huawei and other Chinese firms.

In September 2017, China‑backed Canyon Bridge announced the acquisition of UK chip company Imagination Technologies, then the owner of MIPS; CFIUS reviewed the deal, and Imagination’s statement indicated that the transaction required restructuring to separate MIPS from the rest of the group.

After Imagination’s split, MIPS changed hands several times before ending up with Wave Computing, with Canyon Bridge and Alibaba each holding small stakes in Wave Computing.

James Lewis, director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expressed that he hopes CFIUS will adopt a tougher stance on technology investment oversight, noting that recent legislation did not address licensing‑type transactions.

Given the current geopolitical climate, relying on MIPS is increasingly unstable; many processors appear domestically made but still depend on ARM or MIPS licenses, which can become problematic when those licensors update their instruction sets, explaining why Loongson’s push for fully independent development is understandable.

Reference links: https://baike.baidu.com/item/龙芯/145607?fr=aladdin https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-tech-insight/tech-war-chronicles-how-a-silicon-valley-chip-pioneer-landed-in-china-idUSKBN25L15U

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