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Russia pivots to Chinese CPUs that aren't subject to US sanctions — Russia's homegrown Linux-based Alt OS now supports Chinese LoongArch chips (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Does this really amount to a "pivot"? It sounds like they just updated their toolchain and binaries to support LoongArch - presumably Basalt is also continuing to support other architectures too:

Russia-based Basalt SPO has been recompiled to support Chinese Loongson processors based on the LoongArch architecture

The company says the product is offered 'as is,' and its commercial distributives will be available later.

The distro is based on the unstable, experimental branch of the Sisyphus project repository, which developers use to test new ideas and developments, including support for various processor architectures, reports CNews. The distro is available for download, but a stable release with LoongArch support is set for Q1 2024.

It is an interesting sign that LoongArch availability in Russia is high enough that at least one company put a fair bit of work into adding support, but it seems premature to claim anyone is actually pivoting away from Intel/ARM, especially all of Russia.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

It is ludicrous, but it makes for a topical headline so here we are.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Shitty headlines, welcome to the media

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Seeing as how LoongArch is essentially a fork of MIPS64r6 it wouldn't surprise me if most of the existing MIPS toolchains worked with little modification. This is a Linux ecosystem they're using after all.

These chips are like the great-great grandchildren of the same ones you'd find in older routers.