A recent leak by TechInsights revealed that Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9006C processor used in the Qingyun L540 laptop is manufactured using 5nm process technology. However, it did Taiwan's TSMC and not mainland China's SMIC, which is on the blacklist, Bloomberg reported. This result calls into question whether SMIC has developed its own 5nm manufacturing node for high volume manufacturing (HVM).
Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9006C system chip in the Qingyun L540 laptop is manufactured by TSMC using its 5nm process technology and was assembled in the third quarter of 2020. According to TechInsights, this is when the US sanctions against Huawei began. The analysis shows that the SoC was packaged in week 35 of 2020 (August 24 - August 30, 2020), two weeks before TSMC lost its legal ability to supply chips to Huawei.
As reported a few weeks ago, the specifications of the Kirin 9006C SoC are similar to the original HiSilicon Kirin 9000 processor from 2020. The TechInsights team concluded that the two processors in question are identical chips manufactured by TSMC. After detailed analysis of the chip's critical dimensions, the researchers confidently confirmed that the HiSilicon Kirin 9006C SoC is manufactured using TSMC's N5 process technology.
Meanwhile, the newly revealed chip is labeled as "HiSilicon Hi36A0C GFCV101 JTBFB2U7Q2 2035-CN", while the chip manufactured in 2020 is labeled as "HiSilicon Hi36A0 GFCV101" and has a Taiwanese manufacture behind it. However, it is likely that the Kirin 9006C application processor will ship to China.
Huawei's purchase of this three-year-old processor raises questions about how the company got its silicon. The most obvious answer is that the Chinese giant is aggressively using inventory built up in 2019 and 2020 to export all US-made technology (including chips) after the US government added Huawei and its subsidiaries to its entity list. created) is prohibited. (including a great American tool near Huawei). However, it's unclear why Huawei didn't launch the SoC earlier, leaving an expensive piece of silicon unused for more than three years.
Domestic 5nm manufacturing technology for mass production will be an important achievement for China. However, it appears that SMIC's N+2 process technology is more in the lab than in the high-volume factory. However, many industry experts are confident that the company will eventually develop a 5nm manufacturing node and a 3nm manufacturing process.
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