As everyone knows, the Huawei Mate60 is the first Huawei smartphone in many years to use the Kirin chipset or chips developed by Huawei itself, but it was forced to stop using it for a period of time due to its inability to order more production in accordance with American regulations, which It resulted in having to resort to a Snapdragon chip and also not supporting 5G.
Huawei's launch of the Mate60 that comes with the Kirin chipset is said to have created such a shock that the US government scrambled to find out how Huawei and SMIC managed to do it. Although it is a 7nm-level chip, it is not a new technology. But it is a very interesting step in the chip industry.
TrendForce notes that SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, is supplying Huawei's Kirin chips, but the machines are not designed and manufactured domestically. But it is a chip-making machine that SMIC ordered before the US issued the latest round of trade measures. This makes the US unable to do anything about SMIC and Huawei because the order was issued before the new regulations came into effect.
Therefore, Huawei chipsets are still at the 7nm level, as both the Kirin 9000S and Kirin 9010 were used in the latest Huawei Pura70 phones, however, there is news that SMIC has already developed a 5nm chipset production process.
Foreign media reported that SMIC was able to successfully produce 5-nm chips using a DUV machine, an old technology. Since UV machines cannot be used according to US requirements, the use of DUV production creates the problem of high costs but low productivity or returns.
TrendForce points out that SMIC's Kirin chipset manufacturing process costs 50% more than TSMC's manufacturing process, but is only a third as successful as TSMC's manufacturing process. For this reason, Huawei had to turn to other parts, for example the Huawei Pura70, there are also a greater number of locally produced parts compared to the Huawei Mate60. In order to compete in the highly competitive smartphone market, Huawei may need to cut profits so that the price of the Huawei Mate70 can continue to rise. Market competition.