Latest news with #KirinX90
Phone Arena
2 days ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Despite EUV ban, Huawei could send 3nm design to SMIC as soon as next year
Exactly one year ago today we told you about Huawei and SMIC's plan to build 3nm chips. A patent filed by Huawei discussed how the latter and the world's third-largest foundry, SMIC, would use self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP) lithography to replace the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines that are banned in China. As a result, Huawei would move a step closer to matching the advanced SoCs turned out by TSMC and Samsung Foundry. Fast forward one year to today and a new report out of Taiwan claims that Huawei has started R&D work on a method to produce 3nm chips for the domestic chip industry. Huawei is reportedly pleased with the method used by SMIC to build the 5nm Kirin X90 chip used to power the Mate Book Pro laptop. The foundry supposedly used older Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) machines, purchased by SMIC before the U.S. chip ban took effect, to make these SoCs. Should Huawei and SMIC continue to rely on DUV machines, the lithography will require the use of multiple impressions on silicon wafers (double, triple, or even quadruple patterning) which pushes up the cost of making a chip especially as yields decline. The use of multiple impressions results in the transfer of circuitry patterns to silicon wafers that are less precise and sharp as such designs would be using the lithography machines that are blocked from getting shipped to China. This lowers the foundry's yield and raises the cost of the chips made using this method. The 5nm Kirin 9000 was made by TSMC in 2020 just before U.S. sanctions hit The 3nm chips made for Huawei will use Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors which only Samsung Foundry uses at 3nm. GAA transistors surround the channel with the gate on all four sides reducing current leaks and improving the drive current. The result is a more powerful chip with better performance and energy efficiency. Huawei is also supposed to tinker with the usual silicon design and opt for the use of "two-dimensional" materials which is also supposed to improve chip performance and lower energy consumption. Aside from these changes, Huawei is believed to be developing a 3nm node that uses carbon nanotubes instead of silicon transistors. The report calls for Huawei to have completed the design phase for its 3nm node next year, which is also known as the "Tape-out" stage. At that point, Huawei sends the completed and verified design to SMIC allowing the foundry to prepare for the manufacturing of chips using the 3nm node. Huawei was already obtaining 5nm chips from TSMC in 2020 when the U.S. sanctions started to bite preventing Huawei from obtaining cutting-edge chips from foundries like TSMC. Huawei was forced to use 4G Snapdragon application processors made by Qualcomm before the 7nm Kirin 9000s was used to power the Mate 60 Pro. This shocking development brought 5G back to Huawei's handsets.
Phone Arena
6 days ago
- Phone Arena
China's SMIC may have used older lithography gear to build Huawei's new 5nm chip
China's largest foundry, SMIC, is also the third-largest foundry in the world. Thanks to U.S. and Dutch sanctions, the foundry cannot obtain cutting-edge lithography machines. Without the ability to use extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUV) to transfer circuitry patterns to silicon wafers, SMIC was believed to be limited to producing chips using its 7nm node. We are now in the middle of an interesting mystery. Huawei's new Mate Book Pro laptop runs HarmonyOS and is powered by the Kirin X90 chip designed by Huawei's HiSilicon chip design unit. One leaker says that the X90 is a repurposed Kirin 9010 with a different layout of the CPU cores. We should know for sure sometime over the next few days when in-depth reviews of the chip are expected to be released. The Kirin 9010 AP was used to power Huawei's photography-based Pura 70 flagship series that was released in April 2024 and it was built using SMIC's 7nm N+2 process node. Did SMIC really build a 5nm chip using DUV? | Image credit-X A tweet on "X" from leaker @Jukanlosreve credited Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV with running the report about the 5nm node for the X90. Another X user, @zephyr_z9, claims that the Kirin X90 has a transistor density of 125 million transistors per mm2. That makes it less dense than TSMC's 5nm node (approximately 138 million transistors per mm2) but close to the density used with Samsung Foundry's 5nm node. What makes this amazing is that it appears to have been achieved using a DUV machine. Not all of the numbers were positive. One analyst reportedly discovered that SMIC is producing 3,000 wafers per month with an extremely low 20% yield. Most foundries want to see a minimum yield of 70% before starting mass production of a chip. Despite the anemic yield, if SMIC is able to produce 5nm chips using DUV, this will worry U.S. lawmakers who have been concerned about Huawei's ability to design cutting-edge silicon for the Chinese military and AI even with U.S. sanctions.
South China Morning Post
17-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Tech war: Huawei develops computer chips in move away from Intel, Windows
Huawei Technologies has taken a step forward in phasing out American hardware and software from its personal computers, as it navigates ongoing US sanctions. Advertisement The government-backed China Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre said on Friday that the Kirin X90 chip – a central processing unit (CPU) developed by Huawei's chip design arm, HiSilicon – received a Level 2 national certification for security reliability. The certification, which is voluntary, allows companies to assess the security levels of their domestically designed and produced computers, server CPUs and systems. It often serves as a precursor to adoption. Huawei's self-developed Kirin 9000C, used in its Qingyun W515x personal computer (PC) launched last May, as well as the Kirin 9006C featured in the Qingyun L540 laptop , both received certifications previously. The Qingyun computer series is designed for government and enterprise users. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, holds a Matebook X Pro at a launch event in April 2024. Photo: Handout The company's efforts come as the US-sanctioned company seeks to replace American components in its PC business. In May, Washington revoked special licences that had allowed chip suppliers Qualcomm and Intel to sell older-generation semiconductors to Huawei for use in its laptops and smartphones. Advertisement
