Huawei launches advanced 7-nanometre smartphone chip ahead of Apple, Samsung
The Kirin 980 system on a chip packs 6.9 billion transistors and delivers double the processing power for AI applications
Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, unveiled on Friday its new smartphone chip, the Kirin 980, designed to move the Chinese company ahead of Apple and Samsung Electronics in launching an integrated circuit made under the most advanced fabrication and with double the processing power for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
“We’ve designed an all-around powerhouse that not only features outstanding AI capabilities, but also brings cutting-edge raw performance to consumers,” Richard Yu Chengdong, the chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, said on Friday during the product’s launch at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany.
The Kirin 980 is a premium system on a chip (SoC) built on the advanced 7-nanometre fabrication process of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s biggest contract chip maker. An SoC typically combines a central processing unit, graphical processing unit, system memory, and various digital, analogue and mixed-signal components onto a single chip.
TSMC is also using its 7-nm process to build Apple’s own A12 processor, which will power the new iPhones expected to be revealed at a company event on September 12 in the US. Samsung, which manufactures its own integrated circuits, announced in May that its 7nm smartphone chips were set to be completed by the first half of next year.
The 7nm process allowed the Kirin 980 to pack 6.9 billion transistors, about 1.6 times more than those built in the Kirin 970 chip launched last year, as well as deliver 20 per cent improved performance and 40 per cent greater power efficiency for “next-generation productivity and entertainment applications”, Yu said.
It is also equipped with two neural processing units (NPU) to help developers create richer AI applications. The Dual NPU, for example, enables the Kirin 980 to recognise up to 4,500 images per minute, which is 120 per cent more than what the Kirin 970 achieved.
