Kirin chips were once dominantly used in Huawei phones, but US sanctions restricted further development. Now, there are only a limited number of mid-range devices available in the market, powered by the older Kirin 710A SoC. While there have been rumors about these chips returning to the market, we are yet to see one actually materialize. It seems the wait will be over this year, as a popular tipster claims Kirin-branded processors are going to launch later this year, albeit without much firepower.

The yield rate of Kirin chips has started to increase: Tipster

Digital Chat Station has claimed on Weibo that Kirin chips return this year. Huawei has apparently started to get better yield from the chips, meaning the company is now able to produce more chips from a silicon wafer. This is good news because the production of chips will be more economical for the company if the yield rate is better.

In replying to comments, the source hinted that these upcoming Kirin chips won’t be powerful enough for a flagship phone. As Huawei Central rightly points out, the Mate 60 series is unlikely to pack Kirin SoCs under the hood. Instead, the flagship series might get MediaTek chips because Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is ruled out by leaks, while the rumored Kirin chips could find their way into mid-range devices.

It seems that these alleged Kirin chips are based on larger process nodes. Leaks suggest that Huawei is making use of 12-14 nm process nodes. For those unfamiliar with the term, ‘node’ refers to the length of the transition gates. In simpler terms, a lower number indicates a better process. For example, a 4nm process node would be better than a 12nm node.

This news comes after Huawei denied the return of Kirin chips last year. Does that mean the company has managed to achieve some groundbreaking results in the development of its in-house chips? We can’t say for sure. But would you be willing to use Kirin-powered mid-range phones?

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(Source) (Via)

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The US trade ban has had a significant impact on Huawei, making its phones devoid of 5G capabilities and Google services. The ban has also imposed restrictions on Huawei’s in-house Kirin SoC development. Apart from the mid-range Kirin 710A, no major Kirin chips are currently available in the market. However, that situation may change soon, as Huawei is reportedly planning to launch the Kirin A2 chipset for wearables by the end of this year.

Huawei Kirin Chips may return in 2023, but they won’t power the smartphones

Huawei is preparing to launch the new Kirin A2 chip by the end of 2023, reports Huawei Central. The company has apparently finished testing the chipset and is now ready to move to the production stage. If things remain on track, Huawei could unveil the chipset in Q3 or Q4.

As per the report, the Kirin A2 chipset is ready to enter the trial stage and has the capacity for mass production. However, it has been suggested that Huawei might change its plans for the final production stage, which could lead to a change in the launch timeline. Currently, specific details about the upcoming chipset have not been disclosed, but it is expected to power Huawei’s upcoming line of wearables.

Just to remind you, the Kirin A-series was officially announced for wearable devices, including earphones, smartwatches, and other similar devices. The latest release in this lineup was the Kirin A1, which made its debut as the world’s first Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1 wearable chip. It was developed by HiSilicon and manufactured by Taiwan’s TSMC. Since these chips do not require advanced process technology, Huawei was able to continue their development even after the trade ban was imposed.

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(Source)

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. production has stopped due to some defective chemical. TSMC is the manufacturer of various chipsets which are usually used on iOS and Android devices.  It is a production house for different chipset makers such as Huawei, Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and MediaTek.

Today it marks the second production problem in the last six months halting the chipset development process. TSMC is suffering from weak demand due to the global slowdown in smartphone sales. Notably, the company expressed concerns over the low sales of Apple iPhone and other premium smartphones. It even cited the current US-China trade war as a primary culprit behind the weak sales. This latest glitch will create a troublesome environment for TSMC to process orders timely.

According to our sources, TSMC production problem is linked to some defective chemical shipment which is used in the manufacturing of wafer yield in chipsets. A photoresist chemical which is crucial in the chipset development has disrupted the manufacturing process.

Majorly the production at Fab 14B site in Southern Taiwan has been affected due to the bad chemical. Huawei’s chipset arm HiSilicon are among the customers who will now face some production problems. Nvidia is also going to face some production hurdles after recent TSMC factory glitch. In an official statement, the company said that they are investigating the cause of the problem and responding to customers.

• Read More: TSMC to begin Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mass production in Q4 2018

Last year, TSMC encountered a similar situation when a computer virus made them stop production for three days in August. At the time, Apple’s advanced chips production was hindered due to an unforeseen situation. Currently, we are not completely sure whether the recent production issue at TSMC will affect Huawei’s upcoming smartphones or not.

(Source, Via)

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Chinese benchmarking tool, Master Lu has released its benchmarking results for 2017. We already covered for the top 10 smartphones for 2017 here. This article is for the top Android chipsets in terms of performance.

According to the results, Huawei’s Kirin 970 is the top chipset for 2017. It scored 75,507 points in the GPU test, a slight increase over the Adreno 540 in the Snapdragon 835. For CPU, the Kirin records 48,707 points and this time beats the SD835 by almost 2000 points.

Third on the list is Samsung’s Exynos 8895 that powers the Galaxy S8, S8+, and Note8. Scoring 46,264 and 75,068 points in the CPU and GPU tests respectively, the Exynos 8895 is just a tiny bit behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth positions are occupied by the Kirin 960, Snapdragon 821, and Snapdragon 820 respectively. All three chips powered the flagships of 2016.

MediaTek’s Helio X30 clinches the 7th spot. It beats the Exynos 8890 by no small margin in the CPU score but slightly scores less in the GPU test. The Snapdragon 660 is another mid-range chip that has performed well. It also beats the Exynos 8890 in the CPU test but scores less in terms of GPU performance. Its total score put it above the Kirin 955 and 950.

READ MORE: Nokia 8 Disappoints in DxOMark Benchmarks, Scores Lower Than Gionee S10L, Lava Z25

Other chips worthy of mention on the list are Mediatek’s Helio X25 and Helio X20 which come right after the Exynos 7420 but are much more ahead of the fairly new Snapdragon 630.

(Source)

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Huawei‘s Hisilicon Kirin 970 next-generation chip has been the subject of a couple of rumours concerning the configuration, production and release. The chip is said to utilise the TSCM 10nm manufacturing process and was said to have experienced some problems in the 10nm wafers production that could have slowed down its arrival time but that was averted. Since then, it has been one rumour or the other about the configuration with no authentic word on the release time frame. 

Well-known industry analyst Pan Jiutang has now released some more details of the next-gen Huawei chip, stating that the chip would be come with enhanced GPU, apparently over that of Kirin 960 SoC.The Kirin 960 chip uses a Mali-G71 MP8 which when compared to rival Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and Samsung Exynos 8895, the Kirin 960 in the GPU performance is slightly behind. Thus, there is the need for some enhancements in order to be on par with the latest flagship chips around.

The analyst also affirmed that it would be built on a 10nm process and also stated that Huawei will begin mass production of smartphones which would use the next-gen chip. He didn’t state the smartphone but he was likely referring to the Huawei Mate 10 which is widely acclaimed as the model that would use the new chip in line with recent Huawei tradition. The Huawei Mate 10 is expected to be released sometime in the second quarter of the year.

Read More: Fresh Kirin 970 & Snapdragon 845 Details & Launch Dates Leaked

Earlier rumours further tip the Kirin 970 to pack an octa-core CPU comprised of four ARM Cortex-A73 cores, and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores. There are talks of higher Cortex-A75 cores onboard the SoC. The next-gen flagship chipset is also revealed to have a maximum clock frequency of between 2.8GHz – 3.0GHz. In addition, the Kirin 970 will be equipped with Cat. 12 LTE baseband and would come as Huawei’s first chip to use the 10nm process.

(source)

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Huawei P9 was announced a couple of days back and the phone came with impressive specs. Apart from the dual camera setup on the back, we were also interested to see the performance of the Kirin 955 chipset that powers the device. It is reportedly a slightly upgraded version of the Kirin 950 that powers the company’s other smartphones like the Mate 8. And now, we have the initial benchmark results of the chipset.

To recap, the Kirin 955 comes with 4 x Cortex A72 clocked at 2.5GHz and 4 x Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. As for GPU, there will be Mali-T880. In comparison, the Kirin 950 is clocked only at 2.3GHz. So, let’s see the Kirin  955 benchmark performance below.

For now, we only have the Geekbench results, courtesy of IT168. In the single-core Geekbench test, the Kirin 955 managed to score 1809 which is quite good. However, it’s not at par with Snapdragon 820 or even Exynos 8890 that scores 2353 and 2139 respectively. However, this score does manage to beat the deca-core Helio X20 in the same test which scores 1790. The difference is just marginal of only about 20 points.

Coming to the multi-core test, Huawei’s Kirin 955 really shines with a score of 6415 points. Only the Exynos 8890 scores above Kirin 955 with a score of 7497. Snapdragon 820 is behind with 5466 followed by the Helio X20 which scores only 4483 even with its deca-core setup.

Moving on to the GPU performance, as expected, they are not really at par with chips from Samsung and Qualcomm. Huawei’s Kirin 955 only managed 23.2 Fps on the Unified Cross-Platform 3D Graphics benchmark (T-Rex Offscreen), whereas Helio X20 got a marginally better 24.8 Fps. Snapdragon 810 gets around 46.8 Fps which is pretty good, but what’s really amazing is that both Exynos 8890 and SD820 get above 80 Fps. So, GPU is one area where both Kirin 955 and Helio X20 have to work on.

So, that was the first Kirin 955 benchmark results we have seen. What do you think? Good enough for a flagship?

(Source)

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While we are just 10 days away from the official unveiling of the Huawei P8 flagship, rumors about the device are still coming in. Thanks to the previous leaks, we know most of the specs of the upcoming P8, however, there’s still a lot of confusion about the processor inside the device.

Earlier it was said that the Huawei P8 will sport the same Kirin 930 processor as the Huawei Mediapad X2. However, we recently came to know that the processor was based on quad Cortex A53 + quad Cortex A53e architecture, which may not be as powerful as predicted. As a result, it didn’t make sense for Huawei to use the same less powerful Kirin 930 chipset on an important flagship.

  READ MORE: Huawei’s Kirin 930 Chipset with enhanced Cortex A53e cores  

Recently, new reports cropped up online claiming that the Huawei P8 will sport the powerful version of the Kirin 935 chipset. Up till now, we had no idea about the specs of this rumored 935, however, earlier today, a new leak gave out some details about the chip.

It is said that the company will increase the clock speed on the Kirin 935 to 2.2GHz. On the other hand, the existing Kirin 930 was clocked at 2.0GHz. Also, the company plans to give this chip a graphic performance boost with a new GPU. These changes are expected to improve the performance of the device to a great extent, however, we still don’t know whether it will be up to the mark as compared to other flagship SoCs currently available in the market.

Design wise, the Huawei P8 flagship will use a slim 6.4mm metal + glass body. There’s even a rumored platinum version which may feature dual sided sapphire glass protection.

As for the tech specs, the P8 is said to come with a 5.2-inch full HD 1080p display. There will be 3GB RAM on board with 32GB of expandable storage. Other possible tech specs include Android 5.0, 13MP rear camera with temperature flash, 5MP front shooter, 2520mAh battery and 4G dual SIM dual standby support.

Expect more details about the Kirin 935 chipset as well as the Huawei P8 flagship in the next few days.

Stay tuned.

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Being one of the top Chinese mobile manufacturers, Huawei has been slowly and surely taking its place on the worldwide mobile market. With the help of its HiSilicon Kirin processors, the Huawei Ascend Mate smartphone line has been recognized as a proper competitor to most high end devices on the mobile market today.

A number of rumors and speculation have hit the web in the recent months, regarding the successor of the Huawei phablet, the Ascend Mate 8. While it is currently unknown whether the device will feature a Quad HD display, as Huawei chief Yu Changedong recently dissed the idea, it is certain that the Mate 8 will harness the power of  the newest HiSilicon Kirin 940/950 processor series. That being said, what are the stats of the two new OctaCore processors and how good of performance can they achieve?

The New A72 Super Kernel

Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 940/950 OctaCore processors will both be equipped A72 with ARMv8 64-bit cores. Using the new 16 nm technology, the processors are said to be as much as 3.5 times faster than the Cortex-A15 and have almost doubled speed compared to the A57 architecture. Furthermore, the new A72 architecture will reduce power consumption with as much as 75 percent.

Better Compatibility and a Stronger GPU

Having improved compatibility, the HiSilicon Kirin 940/950 processors will come with onboard graphics core from the Mali GPU series. According to officials the new Mali-T880/T860 graphics processors are 1.8 times better than the current generation Mali-T760, which will further improve upon the loading power possibilities, reducing it by as much as 40 percent. Furthermore the Kirin 940/950 processors will be compatable with the existing Mali-V550 video and Mali-DP550 display processors, which both support the TrustZone 4K media file protection.

Improved Memory Performance

The Huawei HiScilicon Kirin 940/950 processors will also help the Mate 8 and other device achieve an improved media performance. The OctaCore CPUs will feature the latest link structure. The A72 cores upgrade will feature a CoreLink CCI-550, which is a vast improvement from the current three year old CCI-400 link structure used in current processors. This will lead further improve the energy efficiency of devices, releasing more memory bandwidth, thus improving memory performance with as much as 30 percent.

Latest TSMC 16NM Technology to Lower Power Consumption

Based on the current information regarding the Kirin 940/950 processors, they have a significantly lower power consumption compared to its predecessors. This will be made possible by the latest TSMC 16NM manufacturing technology, which improves on the overall performance, while lowering the needed power consumption. This also reduces heat problems in devices, delivering a better everyday mobile experience.

USB 3.0 Support

Supporing USB 3.0 and Cat.7, Cat.10 the new OctaCore processors from Huawei will be able to improve the data transfer and network speed of smart devices.

Reaching the current top-end technology, the Huawei HiScilicon Kirin 940/950 processors are harnessing the power provided by the latest innovations in mobile hardware. Scheduled for release in Q2 and Q3 respectively, they are expected to be featured in the latest Huawei devices, including the upcoming Huawei Ascend Mate 8, which is rumored to be released sometime in 2015.

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Huawei was held the new conferece at June 12th, 12:00, The copany is release the new tablet device, Huawei MediaPad M1, the device comes in three version, the WiFi version is offers with 1299 yuan ($208 USD), 3G version is offers with 1799 yuan (%289 USD) and 4G version is offers with 1999 yuan ($321 USD) price tag.

The tablet is packs with 8 inch screen size, this MediaPad M1 has been showing at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona at last February this year.

The new tablet is covers with metal material body, the tablet has rounded corber design and the body is look slimmer since has 7.9mm body thickness and has 329 grams of weight.

The MediaPad M1 tablet is powered by Kirin 1.6GHz quad-core processor, as we mentioned at the begining of this article, the tablet device has 8 inch screen size with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, sports with 1GB of RAm and 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, support for microSD expansion.

The tablet is also comes with 1 megapixel front facing camera and 5 megapixel rear facing camera, running with Android operating system with Emotion UI 2.0 interface.

The new MediaPad M1 tablet also support for LTE category 4, as the theory can achieve 150 MBPs of Internet speed, powered by 4800 mAh battery capacity that’ scapable to playing 8 hour of video playback.

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