Huawei’s new folding screen sparks scrutiny over Chinese-made chips

Following Huawei’s surprise launch of the 5G-capable Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro smartphones last week, the Chinese company today unveiled two more devices: the Mate 60 Pro+ and the Mate X5 display. fold. Huawei has largely been limited to 4G connectivity on its handsets since the US sanctions, but with this latest wave of smartphone launches, the company has been deliberately keeping it a secret. about choosing your radio station. Sources told Engadget that these are indeed 5G devices – backed by Chinese blogger Vincent Zhong’s speed test on the new foldable, which achieved download speeds of over 1Gbps (you’ll see that there is no 5G indicator on the screen).

It’s likely that both phones are also powered by Huawei’s mysterious HiSilicon Kiri 9000S, whose 7nm node has raised concerns about whether local chip supplier, SMIC (SMIC) International Semiconductor Manufacturing), violated US sanctions to access foreign chip manufacturing technology. . Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new phones’ specifications or the chip.

A recent analysis of the Kirin 9000S processor chip was conducted by TechInsights Bloomberg confirmed SMIC’s 7nm process, which was said to be impossible due to the import ban on key production equipment – specifically EUV lithography machines from the company ASML (Material Lithography advanced semiconductor) of the Netherlands. Before the US import ban, Huawei relied on TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) for 5nm production, supported by ASML machines.

It is unlikely that SMIC would have purchased such advanced machinery from ASML – at least not directly – without raising alarm. Based on Bits & Chips, ASML CEO Peter Wennink recently expressed that “The Mate 60 Pro shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as the restrictions have essentially forced the Chinese to double down on innovation.” This implies that SMIC has most likely developed its own high-end lithography press.

The benchmark was conducted by Chinese technology blog Geekerwan suggests that the performance of the Redmi 9000S is close to that of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888, meaning it is about two generations slower. The site adds that the CPU here has one big core and three middle cores based on Huawei’s own “TaiShan” architecture, in addition to four small cores based on Arm’s efficient Cortex-A510. As a bonus, the Kiri9000S is the first mobile processor to support multi-threading – running eight cores with 12 threads, although applications will obviously require further optimization to make use of this feature. In terms of GPU, Huawei has added its own Maleoon 910, which is said to be on par with the Snapdragon 888.

Like the Mate 60 Pro, the higher-end Mate 60 Pro+ supports China Telecom’s satellite calling service and BeiDou satellite messaging. The only notable differences (that we can see now) are a different “nanotech metal dual dye process” and a better rear camera. As for the foldable Mate X5, it’s almost identical to the ultra-thin Mate The shape of the rear camera is slightly adjusted to the island. Huawei has not yet revealed the price of either model, although pre-orders will begin at 6:08 pm local time today.

If all four of Huawei’s latest smartphone models are indeed powered by the Snapdragon 9000S, it would show that Huawei is confident with its chip output – potentially dealing another blow to sanctions. US penalty. Rumors suggest we will know more about these devices by the end of September – to avoid iPhone 15 fever.