After the big Samsung foldable heist, another case of tech theft has just surfaced. This time it’s related to Huawei‘s chip secrets. A group of former employees of Huawei are facing jail time after they stole some confidential information. So here’s what you need to know.

Ex-Huawei Employees Jailed for Stealing Chip Design Secrets

As per an SCMP report, 14 employees of Huawei are facing a prison sentence after being found guilty by a court in Shanghai. The former workers have been accused of stealing trade secrets related to Huawei’s semiconductor technology. In the official ruling by the Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court, the 14 individuals were found guilty of stealing the intellectual property of Huawei’s HiSicilon division.

For context, these former employees left Huawei to start their own company, Zunpair Communication Technology, reportedly using the stolen chip designs. As of right now, the court has delivered prison sentences of up to 6 years along with financial penalties as well. The full ruling has yet to be made public, so it is unclear whether the accused plan to appeal this decision. Huawei has also yet to comment on this matter.

One researcher at HiSilicon, Zhang Kun, left the company in 2019 and launched his start up in early 2021. Zunpai Communication Technology was a brand that developed WiFi communication chips. Later on, Zhang recruited a number of his former colleagues to join his company. This led to Huawei’s HiSilicon making a legal filing to petition the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court to freeze Zunpai’s assets that are worth 95 million yuan.

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On August 29th, Huawei, seemingly out of nowhere, announced the Mate 60 Pro. The company did not hold any sort of launch event.

The device was simply listed on its official website and first-party online store, VMall. This is unlike Huawei, as the telecom giant is known for extravagant events, especially for its premium products.

It was even more shocking to learn that the device supports 5G connectivity. However, the company makes no mention of 5G support and the name of the chipset found inside the phone.

It has been a week since the phone became official, and Huawei has already sold over a million units of the Mate 60 Pro. The smartphone is expected to ship at least 12 million units.

Multiple videos and articles (including ours) regarding the product have emerged on the internet over the last few days. Based on the information available, we have compiled a single article that answers the key questions about the chip powering the Huawei Mate 60 Pro.

Which chip powers the Huawei Mate 60 Pro?

The Huawei Mate 60 Pro houses a HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chip. It is Huawei’s first new mobile chipset in three years.

Most importantly, the SoC enables 5G connectivity. Thus, the Mate 60 Pro is also the first Huawei 5G phone in a long time since the limited-run Mate 40 series from late 2020.

Who manufactures the Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chip?

Historically, TSMC manufactured HiSilicon chipsets for Huawei. However, due to US sanctions, the telecom giant could not continue its business with the world’s most advanced chip manufacturer.

As a result, China’s SMIC produces the new Kirin 9000s SoC. As per findings by TechInsights, the chipset is fabricated on SMIC’s 7nm (N+2) process.

The Kirin 9000s measures 107 mm², which makes it 2% larger than the 5nm-based TSMC-manufactured Kirin 9000 chip (105 mm²).  Interestingly, the latest chipset even has larger critical dimensions (CDs) than its predecessor, despite being based on a less advanced fabrication process.

This is a significant accomplishment for a Chinese chip manufacturer. But for some reason, SMIC has not published papers on its latest innovation in the public space.

What is the architecture of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chip?

Like every other mobile chip on the market, the HiSilicon Kirin 9000s is ARM-based. But instead of completely relying on the off-the-shelf default ARM cores, Huawei has opted for custom cores like Samsung’s Mongoose.

The Kirin 9000s features an octa-core CPU. Some benchmarks by users / reviews revealed 12 cores since the CPU supports hyper-threading (up to 12 threads). This makes the Kirin 9000s the first ARM chip on the market to support CPU hyper-threading.

Out of the eight CPU cores, the prime core is the custom Taishan core, clocked at 2.62 GHz. Further, the median cores are again a cluster of three custom Taishan cores clocked at 2.15 GHz. Finally, the efficiency cores are a cluster of four stock ARM Cortex-A510 cores.

The graphics are handled by the Maliang 910 GPU, clocked at 750 MHz. The SoC also comprises newer versions of the DaVinci NPU, ISP, and Baron modem.

How powerful is the Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chip?

Based on benchmark tests (AnTuTu and Geekbench), the HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chipset falls behind the current-gen Android champion, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

The SoC is capable of scoring around 7,00,000 points on AnTuTu. Whereas on Geekbench, it can attain about 1,300 and 3,300 points in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.

These scores put the performance of Kirin 9000s in the ballpark of the Snapdragon 888. In other words, the chip is two generations behind in the Android space.

Does the Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000s chip support 5G?

As mentioned at the beginning, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro is the first Huawei 5G smartphone in nearly three years. HiSilicom Kirin 9000s’ newly developed Baron modem enables support for fifth-generation mobile communication technology on the phone.

Unfortunately, not much is known about this mysterious modem. Anyway, in addition to 5G, the device also supports satellite connectivity.

In fact, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro is the world’s first commercial smartphone to support satellite calling. The Mate 50 Pro was limited to texts, like the iPhone 14 lineup.

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There have been a number of rumors regarding Huawei preparing to manufacture its very own chipsets again. The company is apparently planning to make new chips that are based on the 12nm and 14nm process.

The news arrives from known tipster on Weibo (a Chinese microblogging website). As per the new leak, the company is making preparations to begin the first mass production of 12nm and 14nm based chipsets. The tipster further added that Huawei will be releasing these chipsets under its own name. Furthermore, the Chinese tech giant isn’t new to semiconductors since its HiSilicon subsidiary has made advanced chipsets that rivaled Qualcomm and MediaTek for years in mobile devices market.

However, since the company lost its primary supplier TSMC, these new chipsets are being developed and produced on process nodes that aren’t as advanced as current gen mobile chips. For those unaware, TSMC has already moved on towards 4nm and even 3nm process technology. But regardless, these chips might still be viable for other devices like smart wearable products or possibly even IoT based gadgets. As per the tipster, certain chip models are already in use internally, ahead of a commercial release.

This leak hints that Huawei is working on non advanced design chips that will be more efficient. It would even help the brand establish its revived semiconductor presence in the industry. However, this does not mean that the company has no plans to eventually move on to advanced processors. Reportedly, the company will not be releasing such chips till 2024 for the mobile application processor nodes.

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A couple of years back, circa 2017, MediaTek‘s chipsets were only fit for use on budget phones. The company could only manage to grab some shares in the midrange segment while its flagship Helio X30 processors were only utilized by Meizu on the Meizu Pro 7 High Edition which, unfortunately, couldn’t fly. The company went back to the drawing board and upped its game and today, it is a different story. MediaTek is now solidly rooted in the midrange and flagship segment and is apparently slowly edging Qualcomm out of the top seat. In China, the story is no different. Data released by Chinese research firm CINNO Research detailed the SoC sales ranking in the Chinese smartphone market in 2021. According to the published data, the top five on the list are MediaTek, Qualcomm, Apple, HiSilicon, and Unisoc.

Among them, MediaTek shipped 110 million units in 2021 as against 77 .4 million units shipped in 2020. This represents a year-on-year increase of 42.5%. Although Qualcomm surpassed its shipment for 2020 by 24.2%, its total estimate of 106 million units fell short of MediaTek’s estimate.

Apple shipped an estimated 50.4 million units in the year under review, ranking third in the Chinese market, with a year-on-year increase of 38.8%.

It is no surprise that Huawei’s Hisilicon, still stunted by the US ban only managed a total shipment of 30.2 million units which represents a year-on-year decrease of 68.6%. It is noteworthy that Huawei is the only company among the top 5 that recorded a decrease in its shipment YoY.

The top 5 is completed by Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer Unisoc with a total shipment of 8.8 million units which is a staggering 10,312.7% increase over its 2020 shipments.

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(source)

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Earlier this month, HiSilicon, the chip designing unit of Huawei, unveiled new technology related to the field of photography. The company has self developed a new ISP (Image Signal Processor) that is touted to offer smarter, sharper, and clearer images.

The Chinese tech giant’s chip subsidiary announced the new ISP during the China Security Expo. It is called the HiSilicon Yueying ISP Engine, which is run by artificial intelligence and will power a new generation of smart IoTs (Internet of Things) products. In other words, it is an intelligent image processing engine that will be arriving in new smart products soon. The AI in the new ISP Engine is deeply integrated to ensure image quality whilst also establishing a new benchmark for AI powered imaging.

Meaning, it will enable breakthroughs for smarter and clearer picture quality in every scene. HiSilicon also showcased the new ISP’s capabilities in a number of tests, which highlighted its super sensitivity noise reduction that users deep earning to intelligently sharpen images in extremely low light scenes. This was demonstrated in a dark room where one couldn’t even properly discern between objects and their overall shape.

The HiSilicon Yueying ISP Engine is built with an NPU (Neural Network Processing Unit) and VPU (Vector Processing Unit), both of which are closely integrated with another to better supplement different functions while offering end to end AI solutions. At the moment, it remains to be seen just how well the new ISP Engine from the chip designing unit of Huawei performs. So stick with us, as we will be providing updates if any notable developments surface.

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Huawei launched its first ARM laptop earlier this year. This notebook called HUAWEI Qingyun L410 is powered by the company’s older Kirin 990 SoC. A few days back, news broke out about another computer featuring a yet-to-be-announced Kirin 9006C. Followed by that, details about yet another ARM chip for laptops called Pangu M900 have emerged. 

Huawei currently uses HiSilicon’s Kirin and Kunpeng series of chipsets for its computer.  According to a tipster, a third chip lineup called  Pangu will be soon introduced for PCs. We reported on it a while back.

The leaker says that the first silicon in this new series will be called HiSilicon Pangu M900. The first devices housing this chipset will hit the markets in mid-2022.

Just like the current-gen ARM desktops and laptops from Huawei, the forthcoming Pangu models will remain exclusive to government organizations and enterprises. Hence, a normal consumer won’t be able to buy it.

Unfortunately, the tipster did not share any further information regarding Huawei HiSilicon Pangu M900. Hence, we will have to wait a bit to learn more about it.

Going by the previous ARM chip-powered Huawei PCs, we can expect the products featuring this upcoming chipset to run UOS (Unity Operating System), which is a Linux distro based on Deepin.

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HiSilicon is a Huawei-owned semiconductor company. It is known for Kirin-branded mobile SoCs that once powered a myriad of HUAWEI and HONOR smartphones. This division has now announced a new chipset for FHD TVs.

Hi3731V110 is the name of HiSilicon’s new ATV (Advanced Television) chip. It is designed for TVs with a full-definition (FHD, 1080p) display.

The latest silicon from the company features a 32-bit self-developed CPU based on RISC-V architecture. The chipset supports Huawei’s in-house LiteOS, which offers a fast startup.

Being a chip for television, it comes with support for standard audio/video demodulations. It is compatible with mainstream video and audio codecs as well.

Since it is an SoC (System on Chip), it also features a GPU for video enhancements. Additionally, It also has a built-in TCON (Timing Controller).

The chipset can deliver content up to 1080p at 60Hz. It has support for all the modern ports like HDRMI with eARC, USB 2.0, and S/PDIF to name a few.

If interested, you can learn more about the HiSilicon Hi3731V110 from the official website.

At present, it’s not known which OEMs will be opting for this chip for their televisions. Huawei will most likely work with local brands in China.

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Earlier today (2nd August 2021), HiSilicon, the Huawei chip subsidiary, announced its new self developed low latency image transmission technology in China. This technology is aimed to empower multi screen smart terminals and will support low memory usage and 4K UHD image quality on HiSilicon chips.

According to the Chinese tech giant, one of the highlighting features of HiAir is its ultra low latency transmission technology, which the company believes will be the industry benchmark in the next three years. Furthermore, this technology will also be integrated with Huawei Cast+, supports automatic device discovery, among others features like minimalist connection to offer a more enjoyable control experience.

It will also arrive with deep protocol optimization for Cast+, DLNA, Miracast, Lelink, and more. Notably, the new image transmission technology will also support low memory footprint and strong scalability as well. The technology also offers support for 4K UHD image quality as well, which would benefit streaming media, leading the industry’s image quality PQ standard. It even offers a high energy efficiency ratio as well since it only requires to be connected to a TV’s USB for power supply while the surface temperature does not exceed 40 degrees even with long hours of usage.

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After several sanctions imposed by the United States, it has become almost impossible for Huawei HiSilicon to make smartphone processors. However, the company seems to be working on its first flexible OLED driver chip.

If the latest report coming from China is to be believed, then Huawei HiSilicon’s flexible OLED driver chip has now entered the trial production stage. For those who are unaware, the driver chip for the OLED panel controls the illumination of each pixel in the display.

The report also adds that the product will start mass production in the first half of next year. The driver chip for the flexible OLED panel is expected to be delivered to suppliers by the end of this year. Also, given that its own chip-making arm is developing this chip, Huawei is expected to adopt it for its upcoming products. It is being reported that samples have already been sent to BOE and Honor for testing purposes.

Recently, it was reported that the Chinese giant is trying to become more self-efficient and as a part of that, it plans to set up its first chip production factory in Wuhan to offset sanctions imposed by the United States. Earlier this month, the company also signed a deal with a Chinese firm to strengthen its domestic supply chain.

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The Huawei chip designing unit, HiSilicon, has just signed a deal with a Chinese firm to strengthen its domestic supply chain. The local partner shared this news in an announcement earlier this week.

According to a NikkeiAsia report, Shenzhen JT Automation Equipment, a Chinese chip production equipment maker, stated that it has signed a five year long MoU (memorandum of understanding) with HiSilicon, China’s largest chip developer. The supplier added that “Huawei’s HiSilicon is stepping up efforts to push to build a domestic chip packaging and testing supply chain.” It further added that “Both parties aim to expand collaboration on semiconductor packaging tool development in a bid to solve the ‘neck-choking’ problem and realize a self-sufficient and controllable industry.”

This statement is likely related to the US sanctions that have disrupted the Chinese tech giant’s supply chain. For those unaware, JT was founded back in 2004 and is an equipment maker that supplies firms in the consumer electronics, automotive electronics, aviation, and even space and defense fields. At the moment, it supplies Gree, China’s largest home appliance maker, Haier, and Flex as one of its major customers.

Notably, the new deal is an effort from Huawei to strengthen its local supply chain and achieve self sufficiency that does not rely on foreign technologies. Its HiSilicon unit designs its proprietary smartphone chips, Kirin, and its other processors are also used in notebooks, servers, vehicles, TVs, and more. Thus, the deal would seek to offset the US sanctions and enable it to better compete in the global market again, especially for consumer electronic products.

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Recently, the WeChat account, a Chinese social media platform, of HiSilicon Recruitment shared the news that the Huawei chip unit will be starting a new wave of recruitment that will start next year.

As per the announcement, the Chinese tech giant’s chip designing unit will be recruiting students that have graduated from domestic colleges ad universities in China. This recruitment period is between the 1st of January 2022 till the end of the year, which is December 31st. The hiring would be aimed at both bachelors and masters students that are of Chinese nationality. Furthermore, this recruitment drive will be for various parts of its operations.

This includes chipsets, hardware, research, software, testing, and systems. HiSilicon also announced that the jobs will be situated in multiple locations in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Wuhan, Xi’an, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou. Previously, we had reported on Huawei HiSilicon building a new chip factory in Wuhan to offset the US sanctions the company faced.

Furthermore, the brand also announced that it would retain its workforce in its chip unit, HiSilicon, and would even push for advanced semiconductor technology as well. In other words, this recruitment plan might be a part of its future plans to become self sufficient, especially in regards to its supply chain, while also seeking to bring in local talents as well. Unfortunately, this is all the information we have at the moment, so stay tuned for more updates as we will be providing updates when additional information is available regarding this matter.

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A new report has revealed that Huawei is increasing its efforts to become more self sufficient. While the US sanctions had cut off its chip supply from TSMC in the past, the company is now apparently seeking to set up its first chip production factory in China to offset the sanctions.

According to a DigiTimes report (Via AsiaTimes), the Chinese tech giant is planning on building its first wafer fabrication manufacturing company in Wuhan, Hubei Province. This new ‘HiSilicon Factory’ is expected to begin the production in stages from next year.  Furthermore, the report claimed that the factory will be used to produce optical communication chips and modules to gain self sufficiency and to manufacture microcircuit designs as well.

For those unaware, HiSilicon is Huawei’s chip designing subsidiary and is a fabless chip maker. In other words, while it has the capability to design advanced chips it used to contract TSMC for chip production. As per sources close to the matter, Huawei is set to invest 1.9 billion Yuan (roughly 278 billion US Dollars) in the Wuhan HiSilicon chip factory project, which will have it develop its own chipsets for smartphones and other IoT (internet of things) devices as well.

With the various US sanctions that have crippled its operations, Huawei and even China has been placing an emphasis on accelerating the development of domestic fabrication plants to localize the supply chain for its local tech firms. This would even have it reduce its reliance on foreign chipmakers as well. Although, keep in mind that this is just an unconfirmed report at the moment, so take it with a pinch of salt for now and stay tuned for more updates regarding this matter.

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Huawei Technologies is apparently determined to develop cutting edge advanced semiconductors. The news arrives despite the company facing US sanctions that cut off its ability to acquire semiconductors from its primary chip supplier, TSMC.

According to a NikkeiAsia report, the Chinese tech giant is resolute in developing class leading semiconductor technology, as per Catherine Chen, a Huawei director and senior vice president. The official also added that the firm has no plans on restructuring its chip design unit, HiSilicon. In other words, the company won’t be laying off anyone from its subsidiary. At the moment, the HiSilicon had more than 7,000 workers back in 2020. This sizeable number would likely be hard to maintain considering the unit is expected to be unable to contribute to the company’s earnings for what could be years.

Although, Chen stated that the company is privately held and is unaffected by external forces, while its management has indicated that it intends to retain HiSilicon despite the US sanctions. The chip designing unit was founded back in 2004 and is considered one of the most advanced chip developers in the world, also known for making the Kirin lineup of processors for Huawei’s smartphones.

In the first quarter of this year, the unit brought in 385 million US Dollars in sale, which marked a sizeable drop of 87 percent from the firm’s highest ever sales from back in Q2 2020. Chen further added that the company will not reduce HiSilicon’s workforce and will continue to develop semiconductors and will manage despite the sanctions that are expected to remain for two to three years. the company would also be promoting their own semiconductor industries and will help HiSilicon gain new supply chain partners that do not rely on US technology.

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A new report from Strategy Analytics reveals that the global market for application processors (AP) grew by 21 percent year-on-year to $6.8 billion in the first quarter of this year, i.e. Q1 20201.

Qualcomm led the smartphone with a 40 percent revenue share, followed by MediaTek with 26 percent. Apple stood third with a 20 percent share in the market. Samsung LSI and Huawei HiSilicon complete the list of top five vendors.

The report adds that 5G application processors accounted for 41 percent of the total smartphone APs shipped in Q1 2021. Among them, entry-level 5G APs are sought after, such as Snapdragon 480 and Dimensity 700, which will help phone makers to bring the 5G connectivity to lower price tiers.

Qualcomm and MediaTek benefited the most with the forced exit of HiSilicon from the market due to several trade restrictions. Both companies gained double-digit shipment growth in Q1 2021. On the other hand, HiSilicon‘s smartphone AP shipments declined 88 percent in the same timeframe, per Strategy Analytics’ estimates.

Apple, Samsung LSI, and Unisoc also witnessed growth in shipments as well as revenue in the first quarter. With the increase in demand post-pandemic and new technologies like 5G, the growth momentum is expected to continue throughout this year.

Huawei has already sold off Honor to make it an independent brand so that it doesn’t have to adhere to the trade restrictions and can continue to grow. Now, it remains to be seen if Huawei will spin-off HiSilicon into an independent chip business.

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Huawei‘s mobile phone business has almost been entirely grounded by the U.S sanctions that have made it impossible for the company to build phones with GMS and with the latest chips onboard. Thus, we have seen the company recycle the flagship Kirin 990 chipset which was then launched as Kirin 990E. The chipset powers the Mate 30E Pro and Mate 40E. While the Mate 30E Pro was launched last year, the Mate 40E made its entrance in March this year. 

Huawei is now reportedly working on yet another variation of the Kirin 990 and it will be known as Kirin 990A. The chipset is targeted at Huawei’s newfound love, in-car systems. Huawei has shifted its focus to manufacturing intuitive in-car systems, autonomous driving technology as well as electric cars. Huawei still manufactures PCs, though, and other products whose production is not affected by the US sanctions.

The Kirin 990A has a completely different architecture from other Kirin 990 series chips. In terms of architecture, Kirin 990A uses 4-core Taishan V120 (large core) and 4-core Cortex A55 CPU (small core) based on the ARM V7A series. The Taishan V120 is an Hisilicon developed CPU that is likely a successor to the Taishan V110.  The Kirin 990A also features a Mali-G76 GPU.

The smart luxury electric car BAIC Arcfox Alpha S that was unveiled on April 17 equipped with HarmonyOS, is also equipped with a Kirin 990A chip. The chip is said to feature a 3.5 TOPs (Tera Operations per Second) computing power, and even supports 5G connectivity.

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(source)

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Chinese tech giant Huawei is still battling to keep its smartphone business up and running as the company had hinted that it is not planning to sell its smartphone arm any time soon just like the Honor brand was sold off. To this end, we expect a whittled-down launch itinerary this year. The company recently launched the Mate X2 flagship and is expected to launch the P50 series in May.

A rumor has emerged in the Chinese media that Huawei’s chip-making arm HiSilicon will soon launch the Kirin 9000L mobile platform. This is the first time we are hearing about this chip but putting the name into consideration, it can be understood that the Kirin 9000L has a similar design to the Kirin 9000E and Kirin 9000 but the manufacturing process is different. The unannounced Kirin 9000L is said to be manufactured using Samsung’s 5nm EUV process. The chipset is slightly inferior to the two TSMC models manufactured earlier on, considering its setup.

The leak source also revealed the configuration of the Kirin 9000L, highlighting the difference it has with the Kirin 9000 and 9000E. The Kirin 9000L’s large CPU core will see its frequency reduced to 2.86GHz as against 3.13GHz for both the Kirin 9000 and 9000E. The GPU is an 18-core Mali-G78 while the 9000 and 9000E GPU cores are 24 cores and 22 cores respectively.

Furthermore, recall that Huawei’s flagship chipsets usually feature a dedicated NPU. In this regard, the Kirin 9000L’s NPU will use a single large core CPU only. In contrast, the Kirin 9000 features two large cores and a micro core while the Kirin 9000E has one large core and a micro core.

We can’t vouch for the authenticity of these details but on the surface, this could be Huawei’s attempt at rationing its chip inventories as the company had stacked up large orders before the US ban became absolute, affecting companies outside the US using US technology like Samsung foundries, TSMC, and others. One of the sources disclosed that the new chip may be utilized by the Huawei P50 alongside the Kirin 9000E.

Also, an earlier rumor had emerged that Samsung had collaborated with Japanese and European manufacturers to build a small production line using non-US equipment. This new chip using Samsung 5nm EUV may be the result but there is no official word on that yet.

If indeed Huawei has got a Kirin 9000L chipset in the works, we may see it get announced in no distant time. We’ll keep you update on this story if more details emerge.

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• Huawei has reserved Kirin 9000 chips for P50 and Mate 50 series smartphones
• Huawei showcases Kirin 9000’s AI Video Super Resolution technology, turns old blurry videos into FHD
• Huawei unveils the Kirin 9000 & Kirin 9000E chipsets, its first 5G-integrated 5nm SoCs

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According to the report, MediaTek grabs 31% of the Global Smartphone chipset market share in Q3 2020. Although it didn’t top the 5G category, it overtakes Qualcomm by 2% and also clocks a 5% YoY growth. With this, it gets the crown of biggest chipset vendor for the first time.

Previously, a report on the Application Processor market revealed that MediaTek was trailing behind Qualcomm at a 26% share in Q2. That said, it has gained a lot of grounds on Smartphone chipsets. And it has reportedly happened due to the sale of $100-$250 phones in India and China.

Anyway, the rest of the share is occupied by giants like Samsung, Huawei’s HiSilicon, Apple, and UNISOC. Among this, Apple, HiSilicon, Samsung’s share sits at 12% each while UNISOC gets 4% of the market share. Also, if you notice closely, Huawei’s HiSilicon remains unchanged from 2019 despite showing a declining trend due to the US ban.

Coming back, the report says Qualcomm was the biggest 5G vendor for Q3. Although only 17% of the devices sold in Q3 were 5G, the company gets a resounding share of 39%. With Smartphone production reviving in Q3, and other equipment sales jumping by 30%, companies have managed to outsell themselves compared to previous quarters.

Research Director Dale Gai says MediaTek has raised the bars with its mid-range chipsets and has managed to power 3x more Xiaomi phones compared to 2019. This, along with good performance in LATAM(Latin America) and MEA(Middle East, Africa), leveraging the ban on Huawei meant it’s progress steered faster.

Just like Research Analyst Ankit Malhotra says, MediaTek also managed to power the World’s cheapest 5G-smartphone realme V3, and Europe’s cheapest 5G-device realme 7 5G. However, it still has a lot of ground to capture in the area where its rival Qualcomm has been dominating. Despite the pressure from Apple’s 5G iPhone 12 series and MediaTek, Report says Qualcomm has the potential to get back in Q4.

UP NEXT: Realme has launched MediaTek powered 5G smartphones in Taiwan

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While Chinese companies account for about half of the LCD market, the OLED panels and its driver chips are dominated by South Korean companies like Samsung. But now, Huawei has entered into OLED driver chip development with its new self developed OLED driver chip.

Notably, China’s driver ICs for displays account for less than 1 percent of the total market share. So, the Chinese tech giant entering into the field could significantly boost the presence of China in the market. For those unaware, a driver IC chip acts as the main control panel in a system, which manages the image quality being displayed by the screen and its energy efficiency as well. In other words, these driver chips are a core technology that are used in electronic gadgets like smartphones and TVs with a large screen.

Editor’s Pick: Moto G 5G with 6.7-inch display, Snapdragon 750G, 5,000mAh battery and 48MP quad cameras launched in India

Traditionally, driver chip technology is based around the ARM architecture, which is also subject to the US technology restriction against Huawei. So, the new chip arrives as a custom built chip made by the company. At the moment, the OLED driver chip market is dominated by South Korean companies like Samsung, which accounts for nearly 75 percent of market, and Magnachip accounting for about 20 percent, as per a MyDrivers report.

With the growth in display technology demands, many companies have strengthened research into driver ICs; and it seems that Huawei has also joined seeking to expand its presence in the segment with its chip designing sub brand, HiSilicon. According to Huawei CEO, Yu Chengdong, the new chips are taped out, and will begin mass production within the year. These chips are expected to be equipped in both Huawei smartphones and TVs that will launch next year. Analysts believe that the chips might already be in mass production and could help reduce China’s reliance on foreign driver chips.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi launches Mi Human (motion) Sensor 2; available through crowdfunding for 49 yuan ($7)

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Smartphones are nothing without the chipsets powering them. This type of silicons are known as application processors (AP). According to the latest report by Counterpoint Research, the Global Application Processor Market declined 26% in Q2 2020.

As expected, Qualcomm led the market with a 29% share, closely followed by MediaTek with a 26% share. Whereas, Huawei’s HiSilicon came at third position with a 16% share while Apple and Samsung tied in fourth place with 13% share each. Lastly, Unisoc obtained the fifth position with a 4% share.

Out of the above-mentioned top players, Qualcomm, Samsung and Unisoc witnessed a decline in their market share compared to the previous year. On the other hand, MediaTek, Huawei, and Apple showed improvements.

Neil Shah, VP of Research at Counterpoint says that Qualcomm’s decline was partly because of the increased usage of HiSilicon chips by Huawei, in addition to the overall drop of the global smartphone market as a result of the pandemic. Although HiSilicon’s market share improved a lot compared to others in the second quarter, its future is uncertain as Huawei can no longer manufacture them.

EDITOR’S PICK: IDC: Global Smartphone Market will recover in 2022; 5G handsets will account for 50% in 2023

The executive also added that 5G smartphone sales more than doubled in Q2 2020 than the previous quarter. Hence, this trend will try to offset the overall decline in H1 2020 and will play an important factor for growth in 2021.

Strict US restrictions on Huawei and 5G will help Qualcomm, MediaTek and Unisoc to gain more market share.  Research Analyst Shobhit Srivastava mentioned that OPPO, realme, vivo and Xiaomi will use chipsets from the former two companies to fill the void that Huawei may leave behind.

Qualcomm could be more beneficial in the $400+ (wholesale) price segment, especially in China where Huawei currently dominates with over 40% market share. The American chipmaker could also gain share in the mid to high-end segment in Europe.

On the other hand, MediaTek will become popular with the help of its affordable 4G and 5G offerings in markets like China. Russia, and Middle East & Africa (MEA) as realme and Xiaomi will try to eat up Huawei’s share in these regions.

Last but not least, 5G will also increase the number of affordable gaming smartphones with features like high refresh rate displays powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon G and MediaTek helio G series of chips.

UP NEXT: US smartphone market sales plunged by 25% in Q2 2020, Samsung was the least affected

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According to a report by DigiTimes, industry insiders have revealed that brain drain has become the biggest trouble for Huawei and Hisilicon. After the severe trade sanctions by the United States, whether Huawei can stage a counterattack will depend on whether it can Retain R&D talents.

The source said that when the sentiment of de-Americanization and de-Sinicization in the global technology supply chain becomes more and more intense, how to strengthen local technological prowess and research and development power has become the most important task of the semiconductor industry. The source emphasized that talent has become a scarce strategic resource as the semiconductor players in China, the US and Taiwan are all fighting for more talents to support this task.

Sources say that Huawei and Hisilicon were forced to suspend new chip R&D projects due to a series of US trade sanctions and let their engineers take long unpaid leaves. Although R&D engineers in Taiwan were not immediately fired, many of them have resigned.

The sources pointed out that the brain drain is expected to continue. As a result, Huawei’s efforts to expand its R&D talent base over the past 10 years may eventually come to no avail. This may be the most fatal for the Chinese company, the source noted.

Huawei’s founder Rhen Zhengfei recently disclosed that the company’s 90,000 members-strong R&D team wouldn’t need to be so large if the company had access to “high-quality resources like Western companies.” Things have since gotten worse as the US government completely cut off access to parts containing US technology. TSMC has until September 15 to fulfil all chip orders Huawei made for the 5nm Kirin 9000. There are doubts that the company will be able to meet the deadline.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra beats Huawei P40 Pro in Camera Performance with a DxOMark score of 130

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Guo Ping, the rotating chairman of Huawei, stated in an interview that we will continue to maintain his investment in HiSilicon, which he believes will help the company’s Kirin chips. The senior executive also stated that he would be helping its partners as well, to improve and develop their own offerings as well.

According to Ping, maintaining investment within Huawei’s chip designing subsidiary will have the firm bounce back stronger than before and help its proprietary Kirin chips overcome recent obstacles. For those unaware, US sanctions have cut off the Chinese tech giant’s chip supply from TSMC and, to make matters worse, further regulations have banned Huawei from obtaining chips from other companies since they utilized American technology.

Editor’s Pick: Report: Apple to launch iPhone 12, iPad Air, Watch, headphones & smaller HomePod in the coming weeks

Previously, we had reported on HiSilicon facing issues as engineers were walking out of the company. So, it is clear that the company is facing a crisis. In an article titled “Don’t waste an opportunity in a crisis,” the Chairman gave his views regarding the entire situation revolving around the US crackdown, chip supply, future development, and more.

The senior official also said that the suppression of Kirin chips have caused difficulties for Huawei, but he believes the issue will be resolved. He even stated that “it will not be the United States that can defeat Huawei, but Huawei itself can defeat Huawei. A firm right direction, a vibrant organization, and culture are the real challenges we face. These problems are not handled properly. Will fail and die.”

UP NEXT: OPPO F17 and OPPO F17 Pro land in India with quad cameras and punch hole displays

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With various US sanctions seeking to pressurize Huawei and limit its supply chain, the company is facing various challenges. Due to the company not being able to manufacture its chips through TSMC, its chip designing subsidiary is losing its engineers as it plans on building 45nm chip fabrication lines.

According to reports from DigiTimes (1,2), “The mounting US trade sanctions are driving HiSilicon to the brink and many engineers have left the Huawei IC design arm’s team in Taiwan.”This will not just affect the company’s operations, but may also hamper its plans for the future. Another report also revealed that Huawei is planning on building its own 45nm fabs for the severely outdated 45nm chips.

Editor’s Pick: Realme X7 Pro Ultra design, specs leak reveals 125W fast charging, 120Hz display and more

So, the already Herculean task is further made difficult with the fact that the company is bleeding its talent at the moment. One of the reasons why the engineers might be abandoning ship could be related to recent news of the US not granting temporary licenses that allowed companies using American designed chips to continue trading to Huawei. Currently, Huawei is expecting the final batches of its chip orders from TSMC, which will end by 14th September 2020. So, the Huawei Mate 40 series may be the last flagship to feature the company’s custom HiSilicon Kirin chips.

UP NEXT: Huawei Enjoy 20 Plus’s Kirin 820 chip is reportedly replaced by MediaTek’s low-end 5G chip

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Along with smartphones, the demand for smart TVs is also high, thanks to the recent developments in technology and lower pricing. While smart TVs now come with impressive features, the entry-level models pack weak components, limiting their performance.

Now, in order to fix that issues, Huawei has announced new chipsets for Smart TVs — Huawei HiSilicon FHD. As per the report coming from China, the company has launched two chips — one with 512MB built-in memory and another with 1GB RAM. Both of them are said to be pin-to-pin compatible.

The company claims that this new chipset has been optimized and thus, even the 512MB RAM variant can run the latest Android TV 9.0 version smoothly. This is impressive given that chipsets with 512MB memory don’t usually support Android TV 9 and are stuck Android 4.4 which was released in 2013.

EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei overtakes Samsung to become the leading smartphone brand globally in Q2 2020

The new HiSilicon FHD chip platform also comes with a high-performance quad-core A53 CPU that supports 4K resolution at 30Hz decoding, allowing users to consume media content at higher quality on FHD products.

Huawei claims that the new FHD chip platform offers better image quality as its processing of noise and sharpness is more balanced in a natural way. It also has an integrated screen time control module.

The company further adds that both the chips share the same code which makes it easier for the TV manufacturer to adopt them without repetitive development and thus can put in more effort towards product enhancement.

UP NEXT: Samsung confirms it has started mass production of 5nm chipset; also developing 4nm technology

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Last week, TSMC confirmed that it stopped accepting new chip orders from Huawei from May 15 after the new US government regulations. But still, the Chinese telecom giant’s silicon division HiSilicon officially unveiled a new 28m ATV (Advanced Television) chip with support for in-house LiteOS on July 24.

Huawei is known for its HiSilicon chipsets, which power almost all the hardware the company makes like network equipment and smartphones to name a few.  Also, most of the firm’s chips are manufactured by TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing company.

Unfortunately, the US cut off Huawei’s business with TSMC with new rules in May. Thus, the company is now left without a high-end chipmaker. It does have a domestic partner by the name of SMIC, which currently mass produces the 14nm Kirin 710F chipset.

We think the same company could be manufacturing the brand-new HiSilicon 28nm ATV chip. Just like its manufacturer, the details about this chipset is bleak as well.

According to ITHome, this new silicon from Huawei is targeted at non-smart TVs with 1080p (FHD) or lower resolution displays. It is said to be 20% powerful than other conventional chips that are mostly based on 40nm architecture.

EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei begins counterattack, files patent infringement against Verizon, HP, and Cisco

Further, this HiSilicon chip also includes an integrated TCON (Timing Control) module to further reduce the overall cost of the TV. Additionally, it also supports the company’s real-time operating system called LiteOS.

For those unaware, this OS based on ultra-small kernel (< 10KB) requires low memory to operate and therefore, it is energy efficient. It boots up faster within certain milliseconds as well as supports multi-process synchronization, dynamic loading, access to different cloud platforms, and more. It is normally found on Huawei wearables and IoT products.

Also, this Huawei ATV chip supports various input ports such as analog, HDMI, VGA, CVBS, USB, and others. Last but not least, it also includes support for the company’s SWS (Super Wide Sound) sound effects to offer better audio experience.

Having said that, the availability of this new 28nm HiSilicon ATV chip is not known. Mostly, it will be limited to the Chinese market given the current situation.

UP NEXT: TSMC to start 3nm risk production in 2021 and begin mass production in 2022: Report

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As the United States is putting more sanctions on Huawei, some companies in China, including Unisoc, is now trying to poach people from the Chinese giant as they are expecting brain drain from Huawei.

If the report coming from China is to be believed, then IC design companies and headhunters are now stepping up their efforts to poach executives from HiSilicon, a chipmaking arm of Huawei.

This comes at a time when the United State government tightened export controls in a move aimed at limiting Huawei’s access to chip supplies. Since then, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chip manufacturers, has stopped taking new orders from Huawei.

It is also being reported that a number of employees from Huawei HiSilicon have recently joined Unisoc in a management reshuffle at the company. This also presents an opportunity for smartphone makers like Xiaomi and OPPO, which have been trying to develop their own smartphone chipsets.

EDITOR’S PICK: The United States amends ban allowing companies to work with Huawei for 5G standards

For those who are unaware, last month, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that all the chip manufacturers using American chipmaking equipment, intellectual property or design software needs to apply for a license before shipping chips to Huawei.

This is a similar requirement that the U.S. added when it put Huawei on the Entity List last year, effectively banning the company. However, the Chinese giant is actively trying to reduce its dependency on other companies and has not started manufacturing chips in China itself and is heavily investing in that department.

UP NEXT: Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 specifications leak reveals two variants, battery sizes and more

(Source)

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Since Huawei had its chip supply from TSMC cut off by the US government, the company has been heavily investing in other alternative suppliers. It has urged various local semiconductors to step up and even reportedly had deals signed with other key suppliers. Now, it looks like the Chinese tech giant is taking things a step further with a new spree of hirings of professionals.

Huawei’s chip subsidiary HiSilicon is recruiting fresh IT graduates and others in the field from across the globe. The company has launched a new global recruitment program, which apparently promises salaries up to 5 times what you were earning or would be offered as a new post-graduate. Huawei shared a posted image, which revealed its efforts in seeking new blood and fresh talent.

According to the poster, post-graduates or people with a master’s degree that graduated from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021 are eligible to join the new recruitment program. The purpose of this recruitment is to tackle obstacles in various fields including computer software architecture, semiconductor and chipset technology, and more, with a hefty 5x salary promise.

Editor’s Pick: Honor Play 4 will feature an IR Sensor that can measure a person’s temperature

The official poster reads, “WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR TALENTS WITH A “CORE STAR” TO SHINE. WE’RE LOOKING FOR BRAVE PEOPLE WHO ARE BRAVE TO CHALLENGE IN THE NEW WORLD AND WANT TO DIVE INTO THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. MOREOVER, THEY WILL DEAL WITH THE LIMITS OF MOORE’S LAW, VON NEUMANN’S BOTTLENECK, AND ETC. WE HOPE THAT OUR PEERS WILL EXPLORE THE WORLD-CLASS PROBLEMS THAT WILL EVENTUALLY FACE. THEY’LL FIND METHODS AND PATHS OF COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE, AND JOINTLY EXPAND THE BOUNDARIES OF CIVILIZATION AND PROGRESS.”

For those unaware, HiSilicon is behind Huawei’s Kirin processors that are found in the company’s smartphones and tablets. In other words, its chip department is looking for innovative minds in the field of mobile computing. Thus, if you’re interested, definitely check out this opportunity. The recruitment process is underway and will last another year. So stay tuned as we will be providing more updates when more details are available.

UP NEXT: OPPO Ace2 EVA Edition Smartphone And Other Neon Genesis Evangelion-Themed Accessories Are Now Available On Giztop

(Source)

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Huawei Kirin 990 5G is the current flagship chipset in the market which is powering the high-end smartphones coming from Huawei and Honor. Now, the company is working on its successor and some key details about the upcoming chipsets have surfaced online.

A new leak from the investment plan of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) confirms that the upcoming flagship chipset from Huawei is named Kirin 1000. It is also revealed that the chipset will be manufactured by TSMC using its 5nm process.

It is said that this flagship processor will be powering the Huawei Mate 40 series of smartphones which are set to get launched in the second half of this year. While the exact launch date is not yet known, the phones are expected to go official in September.

Further, it has also been leaked that the next year’s flagship chipset is named Kirin 1100 and is expected to be based on 5NM+ technology, which is an improved version of the 5NM. There’s no certainty about the launch plans for Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 1100 but it should be launched along with Mate 50 series next year.

EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei tops the Chinese chipset market with its HiSilicon processors for the first time

The Huawei Kirin 1000 will feature ARM Cortex-A77 cores instead of the Cortex-A76 cores present in the Kirin 990. The A77 brings a 20 percent improvement in performance and with the switch to a smaller node size, that improvement in performance should be higher. The company had began trial production of this processor last year.

Last month, the Chinese giant launched Huawei Kirin 985 chipset which is positioned between the flagship Kirin 990 and mid-range Kirin 820 chipset, and will be aimed at device priced under 3000 Yuan.

It comes with an integrated 5G modem alongside the new Mali-G77 GPU. It has dual-core NPU which has been specifically designed for improvements on “processing power, communication capabilities, thermal and structural design.” The processor has reportedly crossed the 380,000 mark on AnTuTu benchmark ratings.

UP NEXT: Huawei Kirin 1020 codenamed Baltimore, features 50 percent better performance than Kirin 990

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Earlier today (29th April 2020), CINNO Research released a new report detailing the semiconductor market standing in China for Q1 of 2020. The report had revealed that Huawei took the top spot for the first time, with its HiSilicon Kirin chipsets.

According to CINNO, the first quarter of 2020 had Huawei hold a chip market share of 43.9 percent. This is an increase from 36.5 percent back in Q4 2019 and 24.3 percent in Q1 of 2019. Qualcomm came in second this time around (32.8 percent), but was the leader in both Q1 and Q4 of 2019 (48.1 percent and 37.8 percent). In the report, MediaTek was found to be a consistent performer making it third in all of the three different quarters (13.1 percent in Q1 2020).

Editor’s Pick: Huawei partners with STMicroelectronics to develop Chips for Smart Automotive Solutions and Smartphones

Apple came in fourth with just an 8.5 percent semiconductor market share followed by other manufacturers rounding up the remaining market share. A notable trend observed in the report was the sharp decline in smartphone shipments in the Chinese market, which is likely caused due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. The shipments declined by 44.5 percent over Q1 of 2019.

At the moment, Huawei’s HiSilicon processors and Qualcomm Snapdragon chips currently account for 76.6 percent of the total semiconductor market share in China. CINNO reported that about 90 percent of all Huawei smartphones shipped with its proprietary Kirin chipsets in Q1 of 2020, with various models using processors like the Kirin 810, Kirin 820, Kirin 985, and Kirin 990 SoC.

UP NEXT: Huawei and InterDigital settles lawsuits and enters into a new patent licensing agreement

(Via)

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According to a new report, Huawei subsidiary, HiSilicon, has placed an order from SMIC’s (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) new 14nm process, and has received orders from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) as well.

The former started the research and development regarding 14nm processes back in 2015 and has begun mass producing 14nm FinFETs successfully since the third quarter of 2019. Thus, it also makes the SMIC factory the most advanced integrated production base in Mainland China.

On the other hand, TSMC is an established industry supplier with a bulk of its operations concentrated in the Nanjing plant that was put into operation at the end of 2018. It has an investment in 3 billion US Dollars that enables it to produce 20,000 12 inch wafer fabs on a monthly basis. In simpler terms, the plant is able to consistently manufacture a large number of smartphone based circuitry.

Editor’s Pick: Nubia Red Magic 5G phone has 144Hz refresh rate, confirms Nubia President

Previously, HiSilicon’s primary orders for 16nm and 14nm were mainly taken up by TSMC. Now, Huawei subsidiary brand is placing orders to the newer SMIC for the same technology. For those unaware, HiSilicon develops the Chinese smartphone manufacturer’s proprietary Kirin smartphone chipsets.

A known project taken up by SMIC in regards to smartphones was for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 series SoC (system on chip). Unfortunately, it is currently unclear as to which device the 14nm SMIC will be made for, but Huawei smartphones (or even tablets) might be the obvious choice here.

Notably, TSMC is facing certain issues since the US Government has plans to lower the standard of “Derived from US technology” from 25 percent to 10 percent. This move will create a barrier to TSMC’s supply to companies not based in the US, affecting market trends and orders for 16nm processes.

UP NEXT: Honor HLK-AL00a full specifications appear on TENAA; New Honor 9X variant could be coming

(Via)

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Huawei’s integrated circuit design subsidiary HiSilicon has announced at ELEXCON 2019 tradeshow that it would be selling 4G chips on the open market, making it available to a broader client. The company, founded in 1991, had before now only provided components for its parent company – Huawei. However, the fabless semiconductor brand is now hoping to expand its horizons with new partnerships and new products.

The chipmaker also explained that while it would still be designing components for Huawei, it’s able to do business with other firms. The firm also unveiled several products that showed off its versatility as a semiconductor fabless supplier.

UP NEXT: The Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro are selling unbelievably well in China!

To start, the firm reintroduced its Camera line of products under the revamped Smart Vision brand. The series will provide perception computing products for consumer and automotive electronics. The line’s core product is a processor called the Hi3559C, which supports 8K HEVC video at 30 frames per second.

Further, HiSilicon also announced the merger of its set-top box and television lines into a new umbrella brand called Smart Media. The segment will be home to a host of high-performance Linux-based System-on-Chips and 4K/FHD display processors.

Finally, the Huawei subsidiary announced plans to establish a significant presence in the emerging Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) sector. The AIoT sector has several players such as Xiaomiwith a growing range of products. Huawei’sentrance will indeed fast track the growth of the sector.

EDITOR’S PICK: First Samples from the 108MP Mi Mix Alpha is here & we are not impressed!

(source)

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After the U.S. ban on Huawei that came into effect back in May 2019, companies like ARM were scrambling to find out whether they could continue to supply technology to the telecommunications giant. Now, after months of review, ARM confirms that Huawei’s chip-making subsidiary, Hisilicon, is cleared to use its ARM v8-A as well as V9 architectures since they are of UK-origin.

“ARM’s v8 and v9 are UK-origin technologies,” an ARM spokeswoman told Reuters via email on Friday. “ARM can provide support to HiSilicon for the ARM v8-A architecture, as well as the next generation of that architecture, following a comprehensive review of both architectures, which have been determined to be of UK origin.”

Editor’s Pick: Huawei says the Mate X global launch plans still ‘under review’

While ARM is a British multinational company, it had revealed a few months back that some of its technologies were of ‘US-origin’. This news came as a big blow to the company as it relies heavily on ARM’s CPU and GPU designs for its Kirin SoC lineup that powers its smartphones. However, after months of careful analysis, ARM has finally determined that it can continue its business with Huawei. What’s also interesting is the fact that ARM’s v9 architecture is also confirmed to be of UK-origin which means Huawei’s next generation Kirin processors are cleared to use this tech.

This news comes right before Huawei’s second temporary extension from the ban comes to an end. The reprieve was only till November after which U.S. companies will have to stop supplying technology to Huawei, even for maintaining existing products.

Despite the U.S. ban in effect, Huawei is still making good progess in the market. Its Q3 2019 revenue grew by 27%. The company is also expected to ship nearly 270 million smartphones by the end of this year. It has already crossed over 200 million shipments so far into the year.

UP NEXT: Huawei Nova 6 5G render reveals punch-hole display with dual selfie cameras

(Source)

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Huawei is currently going through a really bad time because of the US-China trade war and many companies have already suspended business dealing with the Chinese giant in order to comply with the order from the United States.

At a time when business is shying away from naming Huawei or admitting the use of Huawei equipment, it has been revealed that the Xiaomi 70mai Pro Dash Cam is powered by Huawei’s HiSilicon processor.

HiSilicon is one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies which makes chipsets for a wide range of products, including smartphones, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The most popular chipsets from the company are the Kirin lineup, primarily used in the Huawei and Honor smartphones.

As per the report, the device is powered by HiSilicon Hi3556 dual-core processor which also comes with support for H.265 encoding technology that greatly helps in improving the compression efficiency of the video.

When the Xiaomi 70mai Pro Dash Cam in the driving mode, the mode can be switched to the parking monitoring mode in which the G-sensor will continuously monitor the vehicle. So, when a collision occurs, the recorder automatically turns on the video recording.

The Dash Camera comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera that has a Sony IMX335 sensor with an f / 1.8 aperture and shoots at a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels with WDR. The lens of the recorder allows users to fix the numbers of cars and everything that happens on the roadway within 140-degree.

It comes with high-quality optics and support for Wi-Fi connection and is capable of capturing objects with high definition even at a distance of around 70 meters. On one side of the device, there’s a slot for installing microSD card of up to 64GB as well as a USB port using which the device can be charged, either through a car charger or a powerbank.

Read More: Huawei recorded the biggest growth in the Wearable market in Q1 2019 as Apple maintains the lead, Xiaomi in third place

The device, which measures 87.5 x 53 x 18 mm, is powered by a 500mAh battery. It comes with a 2-inch LCD screen with mechanical control keys. The entire setup of the 70 Mai Pro Smart Recorder is done via a smartphone, without installing additional software.

(Via)

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Huawei’s chipmaking arm HiSilicon is reportedly planning to go aggressive for the development of 5G mobile chipsets with an integrated modem. It is also planning to make 5G mmWave solutions for smartphones after releasing a new chipset later this year.

As per the reports, Huawei will be releasing its next chipset called the Kirin 985 in the second half of this year. The chipset will support Huawei’s high-end 4G smartphones, and can also come with add-on Balong 5G modem chips to support 5G sub 6GHz smartphones.

The same chipset could be used to power the company’s next flagship smartphone — the Huawei Mate 30 series, which is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of this year. The Kirin 985 chipset will be manufactured by TSMC on its 7nm+ node and packaged by ASE Technology Holding and its affiliated Siliconware Precision with FC-PoP technology.

Reports indicate that the company’s new mobile SoC will undergo trial production in the second quarter and based on that, it will go into mass production in the third quarter. Following the footsteps of Qualcomm, the leading company in the mobile chipsets market, Huawei is also going aggressive for the 5G.

It is planning to roll out 5G SoCs integrated with modem chips between late 2019 and early 2020, which are expected to become the mainstream AP solutions for smartphones in the 5G era. The company also plans to tap into the segment of mmWave 5G smartphone AP in early 2020.

To support the transition from 4G to 5G, chipmakers are also rolling out multiple mobile AP versions that can be installed with add-on 4G and 5G modem chips, before launching the chipsets integrating 5G modem chips and mmWave 5G SoCs in 2020.

Read More: Huawei and Samsung settles 8-year long lawsuits over standard-essential patents in China

With such rapid pace development, Qualcomm and Huawei are eyeing to be among the top two suppliers of 5G SoC. On the other hand, Taiwan-based MediaTek is set to release a sub 6GHz 5G chip by the end of this year while Apple is not expected to join the 5G market until 2020.

(Via)

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Last year, Huawei’s Hisilicon managed to beat everyone else to release the world’s first 7nm SoC, the Kirin 980. It looks like the company will continue the trend of releasing its new-gen chip before others, with its Kirin 985 slated to go into mass production in Q2 2019.

The report from Commerical Times (via Digitimes) states that TSMC is readying its 7nm EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography) process technology, dubbed as the N7+, for the mass production of Hisilicon’s new generation Kirin 985. Despite the issues associated with developing EUV, it will make the manufacturing process at 7nm, cheaper and faster.

Soon after kicking off volume production of Kirin 985, TSMC will start manufacturing Apple’s A13 chipsets by the end of Q2 2019. The Cupertino giant’s chipset will be based on a slightly different technology, dubbed as the N7 Pro. All we know about the ‘Pro’ process is that it’s an enhanced version of the N7+.

• RELATED: Huawei CEO says the company is open to selling 5G chips to Apple

This news is in line with a previous report which mentioned 7nm EUV process for Kirin 985. Since the new tech will speed up the manufacturing process of the chipset, Huawei should be able to ship more smartphones with this flagship processor inside. It’s important for the company to ensure a steady supply of its top-end smartphones since it aims to ship over 250 million units by the end of 2019.

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Huawei‘s smartphone business is soaring, edging out Apple to emerge as the second-largest smartphone maker after Samsung in 2018. Samsung must continue watching its back as the Chinese company continues to make efforts to maintain its growing leadership in the industry. One aspect where Huawei has made tremendous progress is in the aspect of the chipset and according to industry sources, we should expect more innovation from Huawei.

Huawei is said to be looking to maintain its lead over Apple and is targeting shipments of 250-260 million units in the year. This projection is buoyed by shipments of its high-end P- and Mate-series models and the entry-level and mid-tier Honor sub-brand models. In addition, Huawei has made significant strides in the aspect of the development of its chipset and is looking to further improve on them. Huawei’s chipset accounts for over 50% of the chipset solution market for 4K TVs in China. The company consolidated on this lead recently when it unveiled its chipset solutions for 8K TVs at CES 2019 to cash in on the rising popularity of 8K TVs. The company’s 8K TV solutions have also seen some patronage from not only Chinese TV manufacturers but also from Japan-based Sharp.

Read Also: Samsung Galaxy M30 with Exynos 7904 SoC and triple rear cameras launched in India

Apart from building on the successes of the Hisilicon chipset for mobile phones, Huawei has also launched its Ascend series AI chips and Arm-based Kunpeng series server CPUs, in addition to TV chips. A recent data by Gartner showed that Huawei’s spending on semiconductor products have increased by 45% YoY to over US$21 billion in 2018. This ranks the company as the third largest buyer of IC chips globally last year, trailing Samsung Electronics and Apple but ahead of Dell. This underscores the company’s growing investments in chipset manufacturer. Huawei still doesn’t sell its Kirin chipset to other OEMs. If they start doing that, the sky can only be its starting point in the race to dominate the industry.

(source)

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Brody Ji, Senior Product Director at Huawei Consumer Business Group reveals that they have no plans to sell its Kirin processors to other brands. Speaking further, Brody added that Huawei treats Kirin as an intellectual property which allows the company to stand against the rivals.

In a statement given to media, it is said, “For Huawei, Kirin is not a business but a product or technology that acts as our competitive edge against rival smartphone brands.” 

Huawei established HiSilicon in 2004 which deals with the Kirin SoC manufacturing. The Kirin processors power Huawei’s most of the devices, shipping in 173 million smartphones in the past year alone. The Chinese company also manufactures many smartphones which run on Qualcomm based chipsets, but primarily 60-70% devices use homegrown Kirin chipsets. Huawei will continue the use of Kirin SoC in the high-end and mid-range devices, while low-range devices will keep coming on Qualcomm 400 series.

Huawei is a pioneer in the telecom and communications sector, but it needs to do some more hard work to gain solid ground in the premium space of the smartphone market. Even the company’s CEO Eric Xu said that the company needs some more efforts in the consumer business to garner better results. In 2017, Huawei crossed $92 billion in the operating revenue, which is little less than the estimated $100 billion OR goal. Huawei’s major sources of revenue include the sale of its 5G telecom equipment.

• Read More: Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro teaser confirms Kirin 980 processor

Huawei Kirin 980 SoC upcoming: details 

Next month, Huawei is coming with the new 5G ready Kirin 980 SoC with the new 7nm manufacturing process. It will help the processor to gain huge performance improvement with better power efficiency. It includes two Cortex A76 cores clocked at 2.6GHz, two 1.99GHz Cortex A76 cores, and four Cortex A55 cores running at 1.8GHz. After 3 years of hard work, Huawei will launch the Kirin 980 with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro at an event on October 16.

(Via)

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Just five days after its official unveiling at IFA 2018, Huawei has launched its latest Kirin 980 AI chipset in China. The new chipset was launched in a ceremony held earlier today. The Kirin 980 happens to be the world’s first chipset built on the 7nm process. The new chipset also scores another first as it is the first commercial ARM Cortex-A76 chipset having two large Cortex-A76 cores. In addition, it is the first chipset with a Cat.21 4.5G baseband, 1.7Gbps Wi-Fi as well as dual-core NPUs.

As a result of these improvements, the Hisilicon Kirin 980 chipset comes with a 37% increase in its overall performance over the Snapdragon 845chipset and also is 32% higher in energy efficiency when compared to Qualcomm’s flagship chip. In comparison with its predecessor, the Kirin 980 chipset has a mammoth 75% increase in performance over the Kirin 970 while energy efficiency is increased by 58%.

The Kirin 980 AI chip is also integrated with theARM Mali-G76 which is equally a first in terms of commercialization. Huawei attaches great importance to photography. I’m sure we can remember the Mate 9/ Canon DSLR camera sample photo fiasco which engulfed the P9 after it was launched in 2016. The company won’t likely have any need to pass a DLSR camera sample for that of its upcoming flagship because the new chipset is integrated with a new generation of dual-core ISPs. Thus, image processing speed has increased by 46%, shooting energy efficiency has increased by 23%, and shooting response speed has increased by 32%. At the same time, there are multiple noise reduction technologies to enhance the details of the photos.

Read Also: Huawei Mate 20 AnTuTu Listing Appears; Reveals Kirin 980’s Prowess with 350,000+ Score

Kirin 980 supports the new Goggles 2.0 AI system, which has tremendous improvement in sensing, measurement, cognition and calculation. It supports 33 APIs as well as 147 operators and supports real-time multi-person gesture recognition, real-time intelligent video processing and so on. The HiAI platform continues to be open to the public and supports a variety of third-party application access, especially AR augmented reality, video, photo taking, and more. You can scoop more details from our Kirin 980 launch article.

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has got a whole lot of orders for its 10nm chip on its hands. The company is said to have received orders from Apple, Huawei’s Hisilicon and Mediatek and recent reports from Taiwan had hinted at a low production rate which could affect the timely delivery of these orders. But in a swift reaction, the company has come out to dismiss that report as false.

This was made known by Elizabeth Sun, senior director of Corporate Communications at TSMC. She hinted that its 10nm chip is on schedule and is projected to contribute to sales revenue for the first time in the first quarter of 2017. She revealed that the company’s 10nm node process will account for about one percent of TSMC’s overall revenue in Q1 2017.

Read More: Helio X30 Will Have Amazing Energy Efficiency & Will Launch in Q2 2017

This, no doubt, should be cheering news for Meizu fans who would now look forward to an early release date for the expected Meizu MX7 which would come with the Helio X30 10nm chip. Huawei is also said to use TSMC’s 10nm process in the production of its Kirin 970 chip which is also expected in Q2 2017.  Apple is also expected  to use the TSMC 10nm node process on its A11 chip and that for now is likely TSMC’s topmost priority at the moment. We are still yet to get official words from Samsung confirming or debunking rumors that its Foundry is experiencing delays in delivering Qualcomm’s orders for its 10nm nodes mean’t for the Snapdragon 835.

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The Mate 9 is the latest flagship from tech giant, Huawei, and the phone sports the powerful Kirin 960 processor which has been compared to the Snapdragon 821 and even trumps it in certain aspects. The Huawei Mate 9 is the first phone to feature the new chip and it has been benchmarked on Antutu to see how it performs.

After running it on Antutu, the Mate 9 scored a total of 132,289 points on the benchmarking app. The score is lower than that of Snadragon 821 devices which have managed to pull in more than 160,000 points. Where the Kirin 960 fails is in GPU tests as it pales behind the Adreno 530 of the Snapdragon 821 found in the LeEco Le Pro 3.

The Kirin 960 is built using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process. It features four cortex-A73 cores and four cortex-A53 cores. The GPU is a Mali G71 which is still not as powerful as Qualcomm’s Adreno but still offers significant improvement over previous models.

READ MORE: Snapdragon 830 Said to feature Super Fast Quick Charge 4.0

The Kirin 960 is expected to be the chip that will be used in Huawei’s P10 scheduled to launch next year. If that will be a good idea is left for Huawei to decide as Qualcomm’s latest SD 830 processor will start appearing in devices at about the same time as the P10 launch or even earlier.

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Huawei P10 may not drop anytime this year but would be launched next year, if words of Huawei’s marketing director for sub-Saharan Africa is anything to go by. Although we weren’t actually expecting the P10 until next year, but with the rate surprises are spring up from smartphone makers, we didn’t completely rule out its launch before the year’s end.

However, Hawa Hyath, Hauwei marketing director in charge of sub-Saharan Africa has put paid to such hopes, hinting that the P10 would be launched next year. The company director made the disclosure while speaking at the AfricaCom 2016 conference holding in Cape Town, South Africa. The Huawei official also disclosed that the Huawei P10 would come powered by Huawei’s latest Hisilicon Kirn 960 chipset among other features.

In addition, the marketing director also hinted that the Huawei Mate 9 and sleek Nova phone would hit South Africa in Q1 2017.

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