▲ Huawei Mate 90 series smartphone
Huawei, a telecommunications equipment manufacturer considered the frontline of China's technological competition with the United States, has expressed confidence regarding its self-developed Kirin semiconductors, stating that the development of new products is proceeding as expected.
According to Chinese media outlets such as the Star Market Daily and the Daily Economic News on the 14th (local time), Xu Songwei, head of product management for Kirin chips at Huawei's semiconductor and wireless terminal chip business, made the remarks during the "Kirin Chip Technology Exchange Event" the previous day.
Xu explained, "The Kirin chips (to be released) next year are already in our hands, and the test results meet our expectations," adding, "Planning and design are already underway for chips even further beyond [next year]."
He noted that while there are currently certain constraints in terms of miniaturization, technological innovations such as logic folding will still allow the advancement of chip technology over the next 10 years.
He went on to introduce that "the hybrid bonding pitch of the 'Kirin 9050 Pro' [the first mass-produced product applying logic folding] has already reached 1.5 micrometers (μm), and it is planned to be further reduced to 1 μm next year."
He also mentioned that Huawei will explore "more layers of logic folding in the future," while adding that the number of logic folding layers will be determined based on product demand.
At the event, Huawei unveiled the detailed structural diagram of the Kirin 9050 Pro for the first time, confirming that it includes the Lingxi Central Processing Unit (CPU), Maliang Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), and DaVinci architecture Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
According to Xu's explanation, the energy efficiency of the Kirin 9050 Pro's CPU large core has improved by 41%, and the NPU computing power has increased by 140%.
Xu also stated, "Since 2023, the cumulative shipments of terminal products [such as smartphones] based on Kirin chips have already exceeded 100 million units," adding, "With the support of China's electronics industry, the Kirin 9050 series has already achieved successful mass production."
The "Mate XT2" model announced by Huawei on September 12 is the first product equipped with the Kirin 9050 Pro chip, and Huawei officials projected on the 1st that this product has already shipped about 100,000 units and total sales will exceed 1 million units.
Huawei also announced its new "Mate 90" smartphone series on the 1st, revealing that the premium models utilize the Kirin 9050 Pro chip.
Amid U.S. export bans on advanced semiconductor equipment to China, Huawei announced the "Tau Law" in May, highlighting efforts to overcome the limits of "Moore's Law" in the semiconductor industry.
While Moore's Law focuses on "geometric and spatial scaling" to make transistors smaller, the Tau Law attempts a paradigm shift focusing on "time reduction" to shorten signal propagation delays.
Logic folding, considered the core of the Tau Law, is a method of reconfiguring the internal wiring of semiconductors into a three-dimensional layout instead of the traditional two-dimensional one.
(Photo: Capture from Huawei's online shopping mall, Yonhap News)
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