China has banned the supply of modern Loongson processors to Russia

December 13, 2022

The Chinese government has banned the supply of Loongson processors based on its own LoongArch architecture to Russia. They are based on relatively modern technologies, and a number of Russian electronics manufacturers believe that they could replace Intel and AMD if parallel import channels are blocked, Kommersant reported .

The decision by the Chinese authorities is said to be due to the fact that the technology is recognized as strategically important and is used in China's military-industrial complex. Citing a source close to the Russian government, the publication writes that it is now officially impossible to purchase a batch of these chips.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, the world's leading chip manufacturers stopped deliveries to Russia. Moscow does not produce modern electronics.

Loongson Corporation was founded in 2002 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to create an alternative to American Intel and AMD processors. In the spring of 2021, the corporation introduced its own Loongson Instruction Set Architecture (LoongArch), which is compatible with programs written for the Intel (X86) and AMD (ARM) architectures.