Huawei and CMIC Develop Advanced 7nm Processor for Latest Smartphones

Huawei and CMIC, the largest chip maker in China, have produced an advanced 7-nanometer (nm) processor to power the latest Huawei smartphones, according to a report prepared by the analysis firm Tech Insights.

Reuters quoted a report by Tech Insights as confirming that the Huawei Mate 60 Pro is powered by the new Kirin 9000S chip, which was manufactured in China by CMIC for the semiconductor industry.

Huawei started selling its phone last week. It declared that it was able to make calls via satellite, but did not provide any information about the strength of the internal chip.

The research company said that the processor used in this phone is the first to use the most advanced “7 nm” technology from “CMIC”, which indicates that the Chinese government is making some progress in its attempts to build a domestic chip system.

Buyers of the “Mate 60 Pro” in China publish videos about its capabilities, and share on social media its speed tests, which indicate that it exceeds that of 5G phones.

The timing of the launch of the Huawei phone, with the visit of US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to China, was considered a message to the United States (Al-Jazeera)

message to the United States

The launch of the phone caused a frenzy among social media users and state media in China, with some noting that it coincided with the visit of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The United States had restricted Huawei’s access to basic chipmaking tools to produce the most advanced phone models since 2019, which allowed the company during these years to launch limited batches of fifth-generation models using stock chips.

CMIC, China’s largest manufacturer of microchips, was put on the US “blacklist” in 2020 because of the “unacceptable risk” that its products could be used for military purposes.

CMIC, whose shares jumped 10% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, says it does not work with the Chinese military.

Logo of the Chinese company Huawei (Al Jazeera)

Huawei’s phone raised concerns that China had made progress in ultraviolet technology last year, when it filed a patent related to this technology.

It appears that the “Kirin 9000S” chip in the new Huawei phone uses the so-called “7 nm” processing node, which is a measure of how small the chip’s circuitry is and thus its strength.

Existing US sanctions prohibit China from importing manufacturing equipment for processing nodes smaller than 14 nanometers, a technology that was considered cutting-edge in 2015.

Bloomberg quoted Dan Hutchison, vice president of Tech Insights, as saying that SMIC’s technological progress is “on an accelerated path.”

Earlier in July, Reuters quoted research companies as saying that they believed that Huawei plans to return to the fifth generation smartphone industry by the end of this year, using its own technologies.