Working around dragons with the Lemote Yeeloong laptop and OpenBSD

Old Vintage Computing Research | REWIND and PLAY Saturday, June 27, 2026

The Guru and the Machine

Behold: the Guru of GNU!

It is often said that true enlightenment is only achievable through a computing experience that is genuinely free. While opinions on Richard Stallman the individual vary wildly among the tech community, no one can deny that he lives by his own creed.

The laptop he uses was chosen with surgical precision: it is a machine capable of operating without binary blobs or proprietary firmware. Every piece of code is either examinable or replaceable by the user, allowing it to run entirely libre operating systems. The fact that it utilizes a Chinese MIPS64 derivative was likely just an added bonus to the heat spreader.

A Personal Quest in MIPS

For my part, the allure of a MIPS-family system was irresistible; such a rarity is a mandatory addition to any serious laptop collection. I found myself "nerdsniped" by two goals simultaneously:

1. Platform Expansion: I wanted to add a MIPS machine to my hoard.
2. OS Exploration: Since NetBSD is my primary choice for servers and BSD environments, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn OpenBSD on a portable netbook.

I expected this to be a quick project. As is tradition, the journey became far more arduous than planned. My penchant for avoiding the easy path—specifically attempting to boot from the SD card slot and compiling a web browser from source—extended the timeline significantly.

The MIPS Lineage

This isn't the first time we've encountered MIPS in a portable form factor. Here is a brief look at our history with the architecture:

The "Why": China's Silicon Ambitions

To understand why a Chinese MIPS derivative exists, we have to look at the geopolitical landscape of the late 20th century. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has long sought technological autonomy to avoid dependence on foreign powers, though early efforts were mostly restricted to military applications.

By the 1980s, the PRC realized it was falling behind. The U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—while ostensibly about shooting down missiles—had funneled massive amounts of capital into basic science. Similar leaps were happening in Europe, Japan, and the USSR.

The 863 Program

In response, leader Deng Xiaoping endorsed the 863 Program (named for its start date: March 1986). This was a massive state-funded push for high-tech R&D.

"The matter must be decided quickly without delay,"

...Deng allegedly wrote on the proposal.

The program, officially known as the $\text{National High Technology Research and Development Program}$ ($\text{国家高技术研究发展计划}$), targeted a 15-year window for advancement in:

• Biotechnology
• Space exploration
• Laser technology
• Automation
• Energy and New Materials
• Information Technology

The Birth of the "Dragon Core"

Despite these efforts, the 1990s were dominated by Intel and ARM. China lacked the fabrication plants and design expertise to compete immediately. It took decades for a competitive native CPU to emerge.

In 2001, the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led by Hu Weiwu, began developing a high-performance chip. This was funded by the Tenth Five-Year Plan and the evolved 863 pipeline under Jiang Zemin.

The Naming Puzzle

The chip was officially called $\text{龙芯}$ (Lóngxīn), meaning "Dragon Core." However, the developers used the transliteration "Godson."

While "Godson" sounds benign in English, it is a pun in Chinese that translates roughly to "dog food" or "food fit for dogs." This is likely a dysphemism—a traditional superstition where children (or projects) are given "ugly" names to ward off evil spirits and ensure survival. It also mirrors the industry term "eating your own dog food" (using your own product).

Why MIPS?

To accelerate development, the ICT team chose the 32-bit MIPS II architecture because:

1. It was well-documented and widely understood.
2. It was relatively unencumbered by restrictive licenses.
3. It provided a path to avoid the brutal competition of the x86 market.

Project Status

My current progress with the Lemote Yeeloong involves several "non-standard" goals:

• Successfully boot OpenBSD from the SD card slot.
• Compile a functional web browser from source.
• Fully document the MIPS64 quirks.

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