Huawei will likely be introducing its second flagship line of the 12 months late within the fourth quarter. The producer has lengthy launched two flagship collection annually with the photography-based P-series (now referred to as the Pura line) usually seen in Q1, and the modern Mate collection hitting {the marketplace} in This fall. After gorgeous the smartphone world final 12 months by packing the Mate 60 line with its first homegrown 5G supporting Kirin chip in three years (the Mate 40 line was the final Huawei cellphone powered by a 5G Kirin chip), U.S. lawmakers threw a match.
The Kirin 9000s chipsets used to energy the Mate 60 collection have been produced by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, which can also be the third largest foundry on this planet. As a result of U.S. and Dutch officers block shipments of maximum ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines to China, SMIC had to make use of the earlier technology deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines to etch circuitry patterns on the silicon wafers that turn out to be chips.
The final 5nm chip designed by Huawei was the Kirin 9000 5G from 2020. | Picture credit-Huawei
Huawei is taken into account a menace to U.S. nationwide safety which explains why American lawmakers have been so determined to put sanctions on the corporate and its suppliers. There’s nonetheless a great likelihood that SMIC should follow the 7nm node it used to make the Kirin 9000s.
The massive query is whether or not SMIC can produce 5nm chipsets with a excessive sufficient yield to make it possible. Huawei’s AP will nonetheless be trailing the 3nm processors utilized by Apple, Samsung, vivo, and Oppo these 4 cellphone producers may have flagship handsets powered by 3nm chips by the primary quarter of 2025.
A put up on the Chinese language social media platform Weibo says that the Kirin 9100 will value Huawei $157-$186 to purchase which might be in the identical vary as MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 ($155) and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 ($190-$240). You may take into account the Kirin 9100 to be expensive at that vary contemplating that the Dimensity 9400 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will each be constructed utilizing TSMC’s second-generation 3nm node, and the Kirin 9100 is likely to be constructed utilizing a 5nm-7nm node. Lastly, the Kirin 9100 simply managed to beat the two-generation outdated Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in a benchmark take a look at.
Nonetheless, Huawei is making sufficient progress together with SMIC that we would not be shocked to see a 5nm chip below the hood of the Mate 70 collection later this 12 months. If this happens, you possibly can think about what the response will likely be in Washington D.C.