China's Huawei is reported to have included an in-house designed chip in its new smartphone, the Mate 90 series, unveiled today in response to U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors against China.

Reuters, the South China Morning Post (SCMP), and other media outlets reported that Huawei equipped the Mate 90 series smartphones with a "Tau chip" based on "Tau's Law," adding that the Mate 90 Pro Max Premium Edition delivers about 31% higher performance compared to the previous generation.

The premium model introduced this time is powered by Huawei's advanced system-on-chip (SoC), the Kirin 9050 Pro, which was created using logic-folding technology.

According to a Bernstein report, while the Kirin 9050 Pro chip corresponds to a 7-nanometer process, it surpasses the performance of Apple's 3-nanometer A17 Pro chip, leading to evaluations that Huawei has narrowed its semiconductor technology gap with Apple from four years to three years.

Previously, Huawei announced Tau's Law last May, claiming it would overcome the limits of Moore's Law in the semiconductor industry.

While Moore's Law focuses on "geometric and spatial reduction" to make transistors smaller, Tau's Law attempts a paradigm shift, focusing on "temporal reduction" to shorten signal propagation time.

Logic-folding, considered the core of Tau's Law, is a method of reconfiguring the internal wiring of a semiconductor into a three-dimensional arrangement instead of the conventional two-dimensional one.

Huawei Executive Director Richard Yu said in a recent press conference, "Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology and others are certainly valuable for producing advanced semiconductors."

"However, China does not have them," he said, adding, "That is why Huawei is developing logic-folding and Tau's Law to narrow the gap."

Huawei plans to expand the use of semiconductors utilizing logic-folding technology in its smartphones going forward.

Reuters noted that this new product will serve as a test of whether Huawei can continue to develop its smartphone lineup amid U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductor equipment targeting China.

The Mate XT2 model announced by Huawei on September 12 is the first product to feature the Kirin 9050 Pro chip, with about 100,000 units already shipped and projections that total sales will exceed 1 million units.

Meanwhile, Huawei explained that the operating system (OS) loaded into the new products is HarmonyOS 7, which Huawei is independently distributing.

Regarding semiconductor supply and demand, Executive Director Yu stated that the company still faces constraints on advanced semiconductor supplies, saying, "Production capacity for smartphone chips remains tight."

Regarding the trend of Chinese companies raising mobile phone prices due to rising memory semiconductor prices, he stated that it incurs an additional cost of about 200 dollars (approx. 270,000 won) per mobile phone, adding, "We will need to raise product prices, but do so more slowly."

In addition, Reuters added that while Huawei did not disclose the manufacturer of the Kirin 9050 Pro, SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), China's largest foundry (contract chipmaker), is being discussed as a possibility.

(Photo: Captured from Huawei's online shopping mall, Yonhap News)