“Incremental improvement”: Huawei stayed with the old process technology, but still improved the Mate 70 processor

The Chinese company Huawei Technologies does not disclose the characteristics of the new HiSilicon Kirin 9020 processor, which lies at the heart of the Mate 70 smartphones, but from indirect signs it can be judged that the layout of the cores has not changed significantly, and the frequencies have increased slightly. Representatives of TechInsights claim that all this was achieved within the framework of the previous 7-nm process technology performed by SMIC.

Image source: Huawei Technologies

The revelations of the main independent experts on the component base of Huawei products were shared by Reuters the day before. The source explains that the manufacturing process for the Kirin 9020 chip has not changed compared to the Kirin 9010, although some forecasts indicated the possibility of SMIC switching to using at least a 6-nm process technology. Apparently, equipment limitations did not allow this to be done.

However, Canadian experts came to the conclusion that the Kirin 9020 chip area has increased by 15% relative to its predecessor, and the layout of the processor units has been revised in such a way as to increase performance and at the same time reduce power consumption. Huawei itself does not comment on such information in principle, but previously announced the superiority of the Kirin 9020 processor over its predecessor by up to 40% in terms of performance.

«The Kirin 9020 processor is not a radical redesign, but rather an incremental improvement over its predecessor, the Kirin 9010, experts say. “This approach shows that HiSilicon is focused on improving existing designs while leveraging SMIC’s advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.”