Huawei are still deep in the ongoing trade war between the US and China, but they’re chugging along regardless. While we’ve heard that Huawei and chip design firm ARM have cut ties, it seems like Huawei has no plans of stopping. New reports claim that the Chinese giant is planning to unveil a brand new Kirin SoC tomorrow. Whether it’s the flagship Kirin 985 or the mid-range Kirin 720 however, we’ve no clue.
We’ve heard varying reports on what chipset will actually launch tomorrow. Chances are, We’ll probably see the upcoming flagship Kirin 985. However, other rumors suggest this new chip will be the mid-range Kirin 720 SoC, successor to the previous Kirin 710 chip. It’ll probably be manufactured by TSMC, the foundry that produces all of the Kirin chipsets and Balong modem chips for HiSilicon.
Kirin 720
If we see the Kirin 720, then that means it’ll probably it’s going to run on a 10nm process. While this isn’t as great as the current 7nm node on the Kirin 980, it is a direct upgrade to the Kirin 710’S 12nm process. Outside of this, we can expect to see the Kirin 720 to have better . Huawei will probably incorporate their Neural Processing Unit as well, which is used for AI and machine learning functions.
Kirin 985
On the other hand, if reports of Huawei pushing TSMC production of 7nm chips is true, then the Kirin 985 is the best guess. The flagship processor will definitely be used for upcoming devices like the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. We’ll also be expecting it on most upcoming Huawei flagships in the future. Huawei usually has some sort of surprise to go with every Kirin 9xx processor, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Still, ignoring the exciting prospects of an ARMless Huawei, this is quite worrisome. If things don’t change anytime soon, this could be the last time we see Huawei use ARM cores in their SoCs. If that happens, it could take years for Huawei to find a replacement architecture. We genuinely hope Huawei finds a workaround for this problem, or they could face a monumental problem soon.
