The Director and President of ZTE, Xi Ziyang, has recently stated in an interview that the company is working on developing 5nm chipsets. And with the current technological processes, it is expected that the power consumption and weight of 5G smartphones will continue to decline by a rate of 20 percent every year.
Although the 5nm chipsets were discussed in the interview, the senior executive has yet to divulge finer details regarding the chips that are being developed. From what we do know so far, it can be said that the processor is not 5G SoC (System on Chip) but rather a core part for 5G equipment and infrastructure. Currently, companies that are capable of providing 5nm chips are not common in China.
However, a notable example of companies that are capable of this includes Huawei with its proprietary Kirin 1020 processors. Similarly, another company that will also utilize the 5nm chips manufactured from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) later this year is Apple with the A14 processor.
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ZTE is known to be a major player in the three of its signature fields, which are chips, patents, and software. With the new information, it seems the company is placing importance on the next generation of chipsets. According to the President, the company has already designed dedicated chips for communications, which was designed independently from the ground up and manufactured by partners. Meaning, its research, and development department have moved over to 5nm processes after mastering the previously popular 10nm and 7nm processes.
As of right now, China is one of only two countries through which both 7nm and 5nm chipsets are imported. The country has developed and produced more than 100 types of chips and is now mass producing 7nm processes whilst also developing and commercializing the 5nm processes as well. Thus, it is an impressive feat by ZTE, which has already developed such chips.
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(Via)
