Japan investigates Huawei's Kirin 9000S chip in depth and accidentally discovers a secret.
The Kirin 9000S chip has attracted worldwide attention, and laboratories in the United States, Japan, Germany and other countries have investigated it for the first time. The U.S. side investigated for a month without results, and could only helplessly say that the U.S. side used unknown technology, and so far there is no accurate information to prove the performance and process technology of this chip.
Previously, many experts believed that the chips used in the Kirin 9000s have been close to or have achieved 7nm advanced process technology. After all, based on the transistor density of the Kirin 9000S chip, which can support 5G's smooth communication capabilities, combined with the processes of Qualcomm and Apple chips, Huawei's Kirin 9000S is likely to achieve the 7nm process can be said to be convincing. But this time, after microdissecting the Kirin 9000S chip, the Japanese research team found that the chip was not as advanced as expected, but used a 14nm process.
The news sparked further discussion about Huawei's chip technology. After all, both Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip and Apple's A-series need to refine the number of transistors integrated in the chip to improve the speed of the processor and provide smoother and more complex mobile phone operation, which means further reducing the size of the transistors and increasing the number of transistors embedded in the silicon chip. Therefore, TSMC has been pursuing the iterative upgrading of wafer processes for both chip design and wafer process, and TSMC's advanced process capabilities will be acquired by various chip companies every year.
Today, Huawei's ability to achieve chip performance on the basis of mature processes is truly breathtaking.
The Japanese team released the 14nm chip Kirin 9000s
This time, a Japanese research team disassembled the Kirin 9000S chip and concluded that it uses a 14nm process. According to reports, the Japanese team revealed that although the Kirin 9000S chip is essentially a 14nm process, due to Huawei's use of a special structure to improve the density of transistors embedded in the chip, and to make up for the lack of transistor size with design advantages, the 14nm chip meets the performance requirements of 7nm chips.
Although this is only the opinion of the Japanese research team, there is also a lot of talk about the manufacturing technology used by Huawei in its own Kirin 9000s chip, after all, transistor density is the main benchmark to measure whether the performance of the chip is improved and whether the power consumption is reduced. There are two ways to increase transistor density, one is to optimize the internal structure and layout of the chip, and the other is to continuously improve the process and reduce the transistor size. In recent years, due to the continuous progress of the wafer manufacturing process, the industry has attached great importance to this process, so after the release of the Kirin 9000s chip, there have been many speculations about the process of the chip.
In terms of performance, comparing the performance data of multiple Android mobile phones, the multi-core performance of the Kirin 9000s chip is the same as that of 3The 0GHz version of the Snapdragon 8+ is not too different, but it is at a 3rd frequencyThe 2GHz purebred version of the Snapdragon 8+ chip has a big gap, and on the whole, the performance level of the Kirin 9000S chip is basically comparable to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8Gen1 level. The Snapdragon 8Gen1 uses TSMC's 4nm process, so many netizens speculate that Huawei's Kirin 9000S chip is at least 5nm process.
But some people also said that the Kirin 9000S is not a TSMC chip at present, and it is likely to be manufactured by domestic wafer foundries, and SMIC, which has the strongest technical strength, can provide up to 7nm process, and Kirin 9000S is a real 5G chip, so the Kirin 9000S chip must have adopted SMIC's 7nm process.
Now, the Japanese research team once again broke the news that Huawei's Kirin 9000S chip uses the 14nm process of the National Bank. I have to say that for many people who pay attention to the domestic semiconductor industry, this news has poured cold water, after all, many people hope that the Kirin 9000s can knock on the door of high-end chip process technology, and this statement of the Japanese means that domestic chips are still in a state of waste in the field of mature technology.
But the Japanese side is not necessarily right, and perhaps this is also a deliberate smear of the Kirin 9000s.
The motives of Japan** are worth pondering.
I have to admit that Japan's research on Huawei's Kirin 9000S chip process and the conclusions drawn from it have made many people who care about China's semiconductor industry feel a little angry and disappointed. But we must remain vigilant, because this may be a deliberate attempt by Western countries to discredit the Kirin 9000s, deliberately create a distorted ** atmosphere, and stumble on our domestic chips.
In the near future, so-called experts from the United States, Japan and other countries will trumpet 4nm or even 1nm chips, while China's so-called"Technicians"It will analyze the shortcomings of Kirin chips here, the progress of Snapdragon chips there, and so on. Are you familiar with this situation?It has to be said that it seems to make sense, perhaps behind the water, unfathomable.
For us consumers, the mobile phone is easy to use, the performance is durable, this is enough, who cares how many nanometers the chip inside the mobile phone has?For example, Kirin 9000S and Snapdragon Gen1, Loongson 4nm TSMC, Kirin 9000S not to mention 14nm, although it is a domestic 100nm, so what?What if the Kirin 9000s uses domestic 100nm?The performance is almost the same, is the process that important?
If the Japanese research team's point of view is true, then Huawei's Kirin chip design is more commendable, with customized structure and intelligent embedded chips, Kirin chips can not only develop their strengths and avoid weaknesses, but also achieve the performance of high-end chips, which undoubtedly opens up a new path for the semiconductor industry, and at the same time, it is also a valuable asset for the domestic semiconductor industry. Wealth.