Will the Kirin 9100 processor be produced using a 5nm, 6nm, or 7nm process node?
U.S. lawmakers would go apeshit if Huawei and SMIC were able to build a new chip using a 5nm process node. After all, the point of the 2020 U.S. export rule change was to keep advanced 5G chipsets out of Huawei’s hands. Thus, any foundry that uses American technology to build semiconductors is not allowed to ship those chips to Huawei.
Tech Home says that the Kirin 9100 will have eight CPU cores made up of:
- One Cortex-X1 Prime performance CPU core with a clock speed of up to 2.67GHz.
- Three Cortex-A78 performance-efficiency CPU cores with a clock speed of up to 2.32GHz.
- Four Cortex-A55 efficiency CPU cores with a clock speed of up to 2.02GHz.
You can tell from these clock speeds that if they are true, the Kirin 9100 AP is going to be slower than the silicon used on most rivals’ flagship phones.
Specs for the basic Huawei Mate 70 model are leaked
The Kirin 9100 AP will have the same GPU used on the Kirin 9000S, the Maleoon 910 GPU. There still could be a difference; the GPU on the Kirin 9000S had four cores and there could be more on the Kirin 9100.
Keep this in mind. If the 6nm node is used to build the Kirin 9100 AP, it means that SMIC and Huawei were able to figure out a way to increase the transistor count of the new AP using older Deep Ultraviolet Lithography machines which SMIC was able to purchase well before the 2020 U.S. export rule changes went into effect. U.S. lawmakers might be pissed if that is true, but there is nothing they could have done to stop this.
As we said, the Mate 70 line will be Huawei’s second flagship series of 2024. Typically, the beleaguered Chinese manufacturer releases a photography-centered flagship in the first quarter that received a name change to the Pura 70 line this year. Last year, it was known as the P60 line. The second flagship series is one that usually features several tech innovations and as already stated, it will be called the Mate 70 line in 2024.
