Huawei was in a position to shock the smartphone world and practically despatched U.S. lawmakers to their native hospitals with strokes after it unveiled the Mate 60 collection final August. The surprising information was that Huawei was in a position to acquire 5G chips for the primary time since 2020’s Mate 40 line featured the Kirin 9000 utility processor (AP). Since then, a brand new U.S. export rule was created that forestalls foundries utilizing American expertise to construct chips from transport superior silicon to Huawei.
Because of this, the producer’s earlier flagship telephones, the P50 and Mate 50 from 2022, and 2023’s P60, all had been powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets obtained by Huawei because of a license it obtained from the U.S. Commerce Division. Oh, we must always level out that these chips had been tweaked to work with 4G however not 5G networks. So when Huawei stated final summer season that the Mate 60 line could be outfitted with the Kirin 9000s AP, a 5G-enabled chip constructed by China’s main foundry SMIC, U.S. officers had been upset.
The Pura 70 Extremely’s Kirin 9010 AP is produced utilizing the identical 7nm course of node because the Kirin 9000s
The one saving grace, and a few say proof that the sanctions labored, was that the Kirin 9000s was constructed utilizing SMIC’s 7nm course of node. As a result of SMIC is banned from receiving excessive ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines (as all Chinese language foundries are), it can not simply etch the complicated circuity patterns on silicon wafers which are wanted to construct chips utilizing a course of node decrease than 7nm. Even when SMIC might use DUV to create 5nm chips for Huawei, the worth for these chips could possibly be as a lot as 50% increased than TSMC’s.
The chipset powering the Huawei Pura 70 Extremely was produced utilizing SMIC’s 7nm course of node
To place this in context, the final 7nm AP made for Apple by TSMC was the A13 SoC for 2019’s iPhone 11 line. That chip contained 8.5 billion transistors. The present 3nm A17 Professional used on the iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 15 Professional Max carries 19 billion transistors. Regardless of the distinction in transistor depend, Huawei nonetheless managed to ship a reliable flagship collection with some options that even the iPhone 15 Professional fashions do not have.
Huawei lately unveiled its new Pura 70 flagship collection and the top-of-the-line mannequin, the Pura 70 Extremely, is powered by the brand new Kirin 9010 SoC. There had been hypothesis that SMIC was ready to make use of the deep ultraviolet lithography machines (DUV) that it’s allowed to personal to create a 5nm chip. Again in February, there was a report stating that SMIC was planning on constructing 5nm chips for Huawei this 12 months. That may change into the case when the Mate 70 is launched through the second half of 2024, however for now, we are able to say that the Kirin 9010 SoC was constructed utilizing SMIC’s 7nm node.
Huawei stays modern regardless of U.S. sanctions
The Pura 70 Extremely was the topic of a teardown by TechInsights
Regardless of being handicapped by the U.S. sanctions, Huawei continues to innovate. The Pura 70 Extremely will enable customers to not solely ship textual content and make calls through satellite tv for pc, it additionally makes use of satellite tv for pc connectivity to share photographs when a mobile community just isn’t obtainable. Think about what Huawei might create if it wasn’t topic to following the sanctions.
The Pura 70 Extremely includes a 6.8-inch OLED show with a decision of 1260 x 2844 and a has a 120Hz refresh charge. It’s outfitted with 16GB RAM and is obtainable with 512GB or 1TB of storage. The rear digital camera array features a 50MP major digital camera with a variable aperture (f/1.6-4.0) and OIS. A 50MP telephoto digital camera delivers 3.5x optical zoom, and there’s a 40MP ultra-wide digital camera. The front-facing selfie digital camera weighs in at 13MP.
The cellphone carries a 5200mAh battery that fees at 100W wired and 80W wi-fi. HarmonyOS 4.2 is pre-installed.
