A Chinese-made Loongson 3A6000 SoC is making its way into the retail market in theMorefine M700Smini PC. The CPU isn’t a top-of-the-line performer compared to currently available AMD and Intel chips, though; The A36000 CPU’s performance is equivalent to anIntel Core i3-10100Fand about Zen 3 levels of IPC.
Loongson’s chip has four cores and eight threads with clock speeds between 2.0 and 2.5 GHz. At max, it supports up to 64GB DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory. According to the manufacturer, the SoC is made for industrial use, government, education, medicine, and other fields.
Based on earlier reports about this CPU’s performance, it makes sense to pitch such a device towards these fields, which wouldn’t need the highest-end performance but will appreciate a PC with a small footprint and adequate I/O options. The M700S retails for 2,799 Chinese Yuan, the equivalent of $387.
The M700S looks like a NUC-style mini PC, measuring 149 x 145 x 50 mm, and weighs 812 grams. It supports 2.5G and 5G dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 with one PCIe 3.0 slot for an M.2 drive and a SATA connection for a 7 mm 2.5-inch drive. The built-in graphics supports a 4K resolution at 30 Hz and dual screens via two HDMI ports. The M700S has four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0, and one USB Type-C with 30W PD 3.0. For wired internet connection, it has one Gigabit Ethernet port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack foraudio.
According to the listing, it is pre-installed with Linux-basedLoongnix OSbut is compatible with many operating systems like Windows 10,Windows 11, Tongxin UOS, Galaxy Kirin, and Ubuntu.
Challenges and Opportunities in Sanction-Imposed Nations
Making a CPU from scratch is no small feat. This CPU will likely be featured in desktops and notebooks intended for some fields. Loongson may make its CPUsavailable in Russiaand Belarus as the countries have trade sanctions imposed by the EU and the US. Russia is currently struggling with its chip-making venture; about half of its recently manufactured chipsare defective. The country is also transitioning towards its locally made software sinceMicrosoftis shutting down itsOffice 365 cloud computing services. Loongson may enjoy a certain market share in Russia for now because of these issues.
Despite that, it will take time for companies like Loongson to make CPUs that rival Intel and AMD’s performance. Intel’s Pat Gelsinger has said the chipmaking companies in China areten years behind. But as China has been on a shopping spree forchip-making toolsand with opportunities to do business in countries imposed with sanctions, we’ll see if it’s able to catch up.
Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Roshan Ashraf Shaikh has been in the Indian PC hardware community since the early 2000s and has been building PCs, contributing to many Indian tech forums, & blogs. He operated Hardware BBQ for 11 years and wrote news for eTeknix & TweakTown before joining Tom’s Hardware team. Besides tech, he is interested in fighting games, movies, anime, and mechanical watches.
