After more than a year of close collaboration with Loongson Technology, the Linux Kernel community officially merged the code of LoongArch on the morning of June 4, 2022, Beijing time. With the official release of Linux 5.19-rc1, the main source code of LoongArch has been merged into the kernel mainline, while the remaining is under review.

LoongArch Is Making Its Way Upstream

The support of the Linux kernel for LoongArch signifies that the GNU/Linux open-source community has recognized this independent architecture. The community is expected to provide stable user-space ABIs/APIs (interfaces between the kernel and user space) for the LoongArch hardware and software platform, paving the way for various system components such as Glibc, Qemu, etc., to go upstream. Previously, Loongson's kernel team and the community have been devoted to the development and review of LoongArch for more than a year, going through with 15 iterations.

The general-purpose CPU based on LoongArch (LA464 cores) — LS3A5000

Solid Foundation for LoongArch Software Ecosystem

A kernel is a key component of operating systems, which runs on hardware (including CPU, memory, and other peripherals) and provides applications with operating environments and services (like inter-process communication, system calls, etc.). The Linux kernel is a bridge between hardware platforms and application software and has basic functionalities such as interruption/exception handling, memory management, process management, file systems, device drivers, network protocols, etc.

As a widely influential open-source operating system kernel in the world, the Linux kernel has spawned various forms of operating systems, which are widely used in global supercomputing platforms, cloud computing platforms, servers, and Android smartphones. To date, domestically produced information innovation operating systems are all built on the Linux kernel. Support from the Linux kernel has solidified the foundation for developing the LoongArch software ecosystem, and will also accelerate the establishment of homegrown information technology systems and IT innovation ecosystems. At the same time, LoongArch will enter the upstream open-source domain through this move, making it easier for a broader community of software and hardware developers to support LoongArch in operating systems developed based on the Linux kernel.

Multiple Open-Source Communities Accept LoongArch

In the first half of 2022, LoongArch received official support from international mainstream open-source organizations such as GCC and .NET. This time, the architecture was recognized by the Linux kernel community. This brand-new independent CPU architecture is growing to be the one on par with X86/ARM.

Linux, .NET, GCC, FFmpeg, LLVM, UEFI (UEFI specifications and ACPI specifications), as well as the domestic open-source communities such as OpenAnolis and openEuler

Going forward, Loongson's kernel team will maintain close communication with the community and redouble efforts to perfect the kernel by adding support for various enhanced features.

We welcome the broad community of developers to jointly build the LoongArch ecosystem and create a more vibrant and open-source Linux world.