The day before US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who once put more than 200 Chinese companies on the “blacklist”, ended her four-day visit to China on August 30, one of China’s three major mobile phone brands Without warning, Huawei gave her a gift—the Mate 60 Pro, the first new phone equipped with a 7-nanometer 5G chip (also known as a chip) and equipped with satellite calling capabilities. Just when Chinese pollen (Huawei fans) think that the launch of new Mate series phones is becoming increasingly slim, and the Western world is becoming more confident that sanctions will succeed, Huawei’s new phones are “resurrected with full blood” and “returned to glory”, which has excited countless Chinese netizens. It also shocked Western public opinion.
Huawei makes a full comeback and wins another victory in resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea?
The fundamental reason why Huawei’s new machine surprised the world comes from the technology war launched by the United States against China since the Trump era. It not only completely blocks the export of high-end technology, materials and equipment to China, but also Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was placed under house arrest by the United States for three years. In 2019, the United States included Huawei and its subsidiaries on the “Entity List” for export control, and in 2020 it imposed three rounds of sanctions on Huawei.
In this cold winter, Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro “turned out” during Raimondo’s visit to China. Singapore’s “Lianhe Zaobao” commented that the timing is intriguing. Does its “full comeback” mean that it will severely sway the United States? A ban. For Huawei, in addition to political factors, I believe there are also market considerations behind it. It may compete with the upcoming Apple iPhone 15. The final result will depend on whether consumers will pay for it.
On September 4, 2023, a customer experienced the newly purchased Huawei new mobile phone Mate 60 Pro at a Huawei store in Hangzhou. (VCG)
“Hong Kong 01” was the first to launch an analysis and comment, pointing out that Western countries are generally not optimistic and pessimistic, including the “godfather” Chang Zhongmou of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) believes that “it is difficult for China to become the global chip hegemon” and that the United States is “stuck” ” After all, it did not defeat Huawei as a “thorn in the side”, but forced China to once again achieve technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades. If this dazzling performance is viewed in the history of New China, it would seem that China had won the victory of “Resisting U.S. Aggression and Aiding Korea” in three years, one month and two days.
The US media is sore and itchy that the satellite phone call “breaks the truth”?
Just as various self-media in China are setting off a wave of disassembly and analysis, Western public opinion fields are also raising doubts and confusions, mainly focusing on two major questions: Is Huawei’s new phone a 5G phone? Who produces the chips? Then three major possibilities were reported: consuming Huawei’s existing chip inventory, producing it at China’s most advanced chip foundry “SMIC”, and Huawei producing it on its own. The various speculations by major American media fully reflect the “sour and itchy” mentality behind it.
Before Huawei officially held a press conference to “officially announce” specifications, Bloomberg commissioned the technical analysis company “TechInsights” to dismantle it, and the report it gave has now become a more authoritative statement on the table. According to reports, Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro mobile phone uses the “Kirin 9000S” chip produced by SMIC, which is the first chip to use SMIC’s most advanced 7-nanometer process technology. Dan Hutcheson, analyst and vice chairman of the company, pointed out, “This is a very important announcement for China. SMIC’s progress is accelerating and it has obviously solved the 7nm yield problem.”
Huawei Mate 60 series mobile phones use self-developed Kirin chip 9000S. (VCG)
In addition, Bloomberg test results show that the network speed of Huawei’s new Mate 60 Pro is comparable to Apple’s latest series of iPhone models. This new flagship smartphone, priced at more than US$900, has a bandwidth similar to other 5G phones. It has been praised in the mainland as a breakthrough in “breaking out of the heavy technical sanctions imposed by the United States.”
In addition to the major breakthrough in the chip manufacturing process, the feature that shocked the world even more is that Huawei Mate 60 Pro has realized the satellite call function of mobile phones for the first time, which can be said to be “far ahead” in the world. Lu Tingjie, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and executive vice chairman of the China Information Economics Society, explained, “In the past, the Tiantong-1 satellite was mainly used when natural disasters occurred or in some maritime satellite communications, but the previous terminals were particularly large. So now Huawei’s new Mobile phones must have very important breakthroughs in antenna technology and energy consumption technology to be able to provide satellite call functions on mobile phones, something that even Elon Musk’s Starlink has not achieved.”
The first Mate 60 Pro to be equipped with a satellite phone function, it uses the second-generation Beidou satellite communication technology and has voice communication functions and two-way text messaging functions. Experts believe that this “sky-breaking” technological innovation, “Although it is difficult for us to use it in our daily lives, for those people on the sea, in the desert, in the barren mountains, and in the disaster areas, it will be a matter of life safety.” .
Taiwanese magician assists in breakthrough in technological tool transformation
The next question worth exploring is how Huawei managed to produce a mobile phone with performance equivalent to 5G despite nearly four years of containment and blockade by the United States. To solve this mystery, the key undoubtedly lies in the chip equipped with Mate 60 Pro and the production story behind it.
On September 3, 2023 local time, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the Kirin 9000S chip manufactured by SMIC is taken from the Mate 60 Pro smartphone of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Huawei and SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, have built an advanced 7-nanometer processor for its latest smartphone. (VCG)
Authoritative analyzes are coming out one after another, and the possibility of Mate 60 Pro using 2020 Kirin 9000 stock has basically been ruled out. However, in 2020, SMIC was included in the list of sanctioned entities, and EUV lithography machines controlled by Dutch ASML were prohibited from being sold to China. How did China produce 7-nanometer wafers when it only owned DUV lithography machines? ?
Lin Benjian, an academician of Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, once said that without equipment that can obtain EUV, using multiple exposure technology, it can reach 5 nanometers, but it is limited by resolution, and the actual limit is 7 nanometers. Following this trajectory, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. applied for a patent titled “Reflector, Lithography Device and Control Method” to the State Intellectual Property Office in 2021. Judging from the published content, this patent is related to EUV light Engraving machine related. In addition, Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun also announced that it has “basically achieved the localization of EDA (electronic design automation) tools above 14 nanometers, and will complete its comprehensive verification in 2023.”
In other words, at least Huawei has made breakthroughs in self-sufficiency of semiconductor technology and design tools. After further transformation, the possibility of self-development and production of 7-nanometer chips is quite high.
If China is able to localize high-end chips, TSMC, the global OEM leader, will inevitably be pressured and impacted by being caught up. Interestingly, SMIC CEO Liang Mengsong, who is known as the “Taiwanese Chip Magician”, once helped Samsung overtake TSMC and is also regarded by some industry insiders as a “TSMC traitor”. He once led SMIC from 28nm to 28nm. Pushing into the 14nm process, and now assisting SMIC to rush to 7nm, it has once again attracted great attention from the outside world.
China cannot be defeated by foreign enemies until the boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains
Looking at the breakthrough of Mate 60 Pro from a technical perspective, “Hong Kong 01” once pointed out that “The Return of Kirin” represents the following two great significances: It is China’s first mobile phone with completely independent intellectual property rights, and it represents the United States’ comprehensive stranglehold on Chinese technology and The failure of the blockade. However, China’s road to high-end chip production is surrounded by high walls. To catch up with major manufacturers such as ASML, TSMC, Samsung, and Intel (Intel), there is still a very difficult road to go. How to achieve high yield, large output, low cost, and at the same time achieve comprehensive localization of technology and equipment is still a major issue for China to break out in this technological war between great powers.
The picture shows the lithography giant ASML manufacturing plant in the Netherlands on January 5, 2022, local time, in Berlin, Germany. (VCG)
A commentary article published by the Mainland’s official media “Economic Daily” also believes that the hot sales of the new mobile phone Mate 60 Pro launched by the communications giant Huawei reflects the outside world’s expectations for “Chinese chips”. It’s too early.”
Of course, for China, neither being humble nor being arrogant is the most pragmatic attitude needed to break the U.S. technological blockade. However, from a historical perspective, Huawei is launching a new phone that dazzles the world at this moment. On the one hand, it shows that Huawei has always been grateful to its opponents and enemies, and is seeking truth from facts, calmly and frankly admitting The gap between China and the United States has always maintained an open attitude and a sense of urgency.
On the other hand, as Taiwanese scholar Wang Liben said, the U.S.’s struggle against Huawei is actually a microcosm of the entire competition between China and the United States. It can actually be regarded as a decisive and important event in human civilization. For mainland China, it has the most hard-working and intelligent people in the world, and it also has the most powerful consumer market in the world. The real problem is whether its leadership has the confidence and vision to continuously optimize its government system. And we are willing to continue to unleash the vitality of the people so that China’s potential can be maximized. “After all, China’s problems have arisen from within since ancient times. No external enemy can truly defeat China.”
Huawei’s amazing journey is not over yet, the technology war between China and the United States is advancing further
The craze for Huawei’s new Mate 60 Pro model continues to this day, and Hong Kong cannot stay out of it. According to a reporter from “Hong Kong 01” who visited nearby businesses at Xianda Plaza in Mong Kok on the evening of September 7, he found that the price of Huawei’s new flagship mobile phone Mate 60 Pro ranges from HKD 9,480 to HKD 10,500. Some merchants pointed out that because “there is speculation at home and abroad, the price cannot be lowered, and you can’t get away with it if you buy it for more than 9,000 yuan.” The premium is more than 2,000 yuan, which is more expensive than the new iPhone 15 Pro price reported online, and more expensive than the iPhone 14 Pro (256GB) , 8,599 yuan).
The amazing journey of Huawei’s new phones is not over yet. On September 8, Huawei Mall launched two new mobile phones, Mate 60 Pro+ and foldable mobile phone Mate X5, and opened pre-orders on the same day with a deposit of RMB 1,000. It is understood that after pre-orders opened at 10:08 a.m., the new phones were sold out within minutes. According to industry rumors, the Mate 60 Pro+ is expected to be equipped with at least the same Kirin 9000S chip as the Mate 60 series, and may even be the higher-spec Kirin 9100.
Observers believe that Huawei relied on the Mate 60 Pro to “surprise” the US sanctions and blockade. Although the pressure is getting stronger, it is very likely to incur more stringent measures from the United States. Sure enough, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a statement saying that it had launched an investigation and was working hard to obtain more information about the 7-nanometer chips in mobile phones. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on September 8 that China opposes the politicization of economic, trade and science and technology issues.
This also means that the Sino-US technological war has entered a new stage. At the Huawei Mate 40 series launch conference on October 22, 2020, Huawei Managing Director Yu Chengdong said “far ahead” no less than 14 times, covering all aspects such as processor, screen, battery, charging, camera, sound quality, etc. The term “way ahead” was quickly popularized by mainland netizens and became an Internet trend. The appearance of Mate 60 Pro has brought “far ahead” back into the eyes of netizens. However, the century-old drama of the technological game between China and the United States has not yet come to an end, and Huawei’s road to “being far ahead” may still be “difficult and long.”
Is there support from national power behind Huawei’s road to “returning to glory”?
According to Reuters news on September 5, in order to revitalize the semiconductor industry, step up to catch up with competitors such as the United States, and counter a series of controls imposed by the United States on China’s chip manufacturing, China will launch the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (also known as the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund). (called “Big Fund”) Phase III, with a planned financing scale of RMB 300 billion.
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2023-09-09 01:00:35
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