Friday, January 5th 2024
Huawei Still Ships 5 nm TSMC Chips in its Laptops, Despite US Sanctions
According to the latest teardown from TechInsights, China's biggest technology maker, Huawei, has been shipping laptops with technology supposedly sanctioned by the United States. As the teardown shows, TechInisights has discovered that Huawei's Kirin 9006C processor is manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm semiconductor technology. Originally, the United States have imposed sanctions on Huawei back in 2020, when the government cut off Huawei's access from TSMC's advanced facilities and forbade the use of the latest nodes by Huawei's HiSilicon chip design arm. Today's findings show signs of contradiction, as the Qingyun L540 notebook that launched in December 2023 employs a Kirin 9006C chipset manufactured on a TSMC 5 nm node.
TechInsight's findings indicate that Kirin 9006C assembly and packaging occurred around the third quarter of 2020, whereas the 2020 Huawei sanctions started in the second quarter. Of course, the implication of the sanctions likely prohibited any new orders and didn't prevent Huawei from possibly stockpiling millions of chip orders in its warehouse before they took place. The Chinese giant probably made orders beforehand and is using the technology only now, with the Qingyun L540 laptop being one of the first Kirin 9006C appearances. Some online retailers also point out that the laptop complies with the latest security practices required for the government, which means that they have been in the works since the chip began the early stages of design, way before 2020. We don't know the stockpile quantity, but SMIC's domestic efforts seem insufficient to supply the Chinese market alone. The news that Huawei is still using TSMC chips made SMIC's share go for a 2% free fall on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Sources:
TechInsights, via Bloomberg
TechInsight's findings indicate that Kirin 9006C assembly and packaging occurred around the third quarter of 2020, whereas the 2020 Huawei sanctions started in the second quarter. Of course, the implication of the sanctions likely prohibited any new orders and didn't prevent Huawei from possibly stockpiling millions of chip orders in its warehouse before they took place. The Chinese giant probably made orders beforehand and is using the technology only now, with the Qingyun L540 laptop being one of the first Kirin 9006C appearances. Some online retailers also point out that the laptop complies with the latest security practices required for the government, which means that they have been in the works since the chip began the early stages of design, way before 2020. We don't know the stockpile quantity, but SMIC's domestic efforts seem insufficient to supply the Chinese market alone. The news that Huawei is still using TSMC chips made SMIC's share go for a 2% free fall on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
19 Comments on Huawei Still Ships 5 nm TSMC Chips in its Laptops, Despite US Sanctions
Huawei has probably learned how to manufacture 5nm chips.
The restrictions extend to TSMC. Huawei doesn't make chips, China won't make chips on TSMC's 5nm-equivalent process in any near future, they also don't have access to the necessary equipment from ASML.
Btw, From what I've seen this laptop is terrible, and super expensive for what it offers. So who cares
The only chip TSMC made at the time at 5nm (N5) was Apple's A14.
Considering how Apple always gobbles up the first available supply of a new process node there could not be too much left for others like Huawei.
Even so - 5nm (N5) made 3 years ago on a laptop is not particularly powerful. I doubt A14 itself would be either.
As for proper 5nm high power chips - these did not appear on desktops until the latter half of 2022. On laptops even later.
Besides first generation 5nm optimized for low power cant be a good fit for a laptop.
They were a leading customer until September 2020 when TSMC stopped supplying chips to them. By that time, N5 was nearly two years old so this chip is likely to be made on a mature N5 process.
Wikipedia says N5 went into production in 2020. 2019 only had risk production: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_nm_process#5_nm_process_nodes
So i would not call 2020 N5 as mature when N5P was introduced a year later.