Loongnix operating system for community

Loongnix is a Linux-based operating system(OS) maintained by Loongson Technology Corporation Limited (Loongson) that provides services for personal computers, servers, and cloud computing in the generalized informatization field.

The Loongnix ecosystem is based on the concept of “Supporting the development of commercial and customized products based on community-driven OS for the downstream manufacturers. In other words, Loongnix, as the source of technology and products, not only supports brand operating system manufacturers in developing their commercial distribution products, but also supports cloud manufacturers, OEMs, and other enterprises to develop their customized operating systems according to their needs.

Loongnix consists of three editions: Loongnix, Loongnix-Server, and Loongnix-Embeedded, which target personal computers, servers, and cloud computing, respectively.

Throughout the development of Loongnix, one should pay special attention to the two major achievements: compliance with the unified system architecture and the standardization of the API environment. First, the unified system refers to the interface between the operating system and the hardware system. In terms of compliance with the unified system architecture, Loongson formulated and released the “Loongson CPU Unified System Architecture Specification”, which supports UEFI firmware and system of ACPI standards and realizes the compatibility of operating systems cross motherboards and the compatibility of using different generation CPUs.

It helps Loongson in achieving the goal of “any set of Loongson operating systems can be installed on Loongson machines produced by different manufacturers at any time”. Second, the API environment refers to the interface between the operating system and the application software. To standardize the API environment, Loongson built a professional team to innovate and maintain important APIs of Java virtual machine, browser, and graphics library. By standardizing the API Application programming environment, the R&D team can ensure that the Loongnix operating system is upgraded iteratively while maintaining API compatibility.

For cloud computing, the Loongson platform fully supports typical cloud computing solutions, such as Openstack/KVM, Docker/K8S, etc. Furthermore, users can use and download mirror images for operating system container of Loongnix and Alpine released by Loongson.

In addition, in the field of display and control, Loongnix also launched the 3D earth display and control middleware—LoongEarth. Its performance is significantly better than the existing 3D earth display and control software.