Huawei Ready to Enter PC Industry with Custom OS and Processor

[AleksandarK]

Since the debut of its plans to create a custom Operating System and make itself independent from everyone, Huawei has been working hard to bring that idea to life. Creating custom software and custom hardware solutions, Huawei's engineers have been rather busy. And now, Huawei aims to be the new player in the Chinese PC industry, replacing the already available solutions that have foreign technology with potential backdoors that could represent a threat to Chinese information security. So to prepare for that, Huawei is creating a custom OS called HarmonyOS that will accompany custom hardware solutions.

The HarmonyOS was announced last year at Huawei Developer Conference 2019 (HDC 2019) as a project Huawei is working on. However, it seems like that project will become some of the more important things the company is working on. A well-known person for tipping about the latest industry news on Weibo said that Huawei is preparing to launch custom PCs very soon for domestic (Chinese) audience. Huawei is supposedly working with major cities and regions in China to supply its infrastructure with new solutions. And what those solutions will be? Well, Huawei plans to combine the HarmonyOS with its already launched Kunpeng Desktop Board.



Specifications of the Kunpeng Desktop Board:

• Processor - Kunpeng 920 processor with 4/8 cores running at 2.6 GHz
• Storage - 6xSATA 3.0 hard drive interfaces, 2xM.2 SSD slots
• Memory - 4xDDR4-2400 UDIMM slots, maximum capacity 64 GB
• PCIe Expansion - 1xPCIe 3.0 x16, 1xPCIe 3.0 x4, and 1xPCIe 3.0 x1 slots
• Networking - 2xLOM NIC, supporting GE network ports or optical ports
• USB - 4xUSB 3.0 and 4xUSB 2.0

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Ferrum Master]

Darn good board layout... even fiber?

 

[Harakhti]

I find it interesting. Even if that board is a prototype mock-up and Huawei isn't necessarily a company I would want as a primary supplier, the paper specs sound like this could make for a competent homeserver base. Think something like maybe a cheap PfSense or FreeNAS solution - if made compatible. Only thing it'd need is an IGP of whatever nature.

 

[steve360]

Chinese OS with Chinese tech made by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[tabascosauz]

Kunpeng 920 was already launched last year as a server SKU with 32, 48 or 64 cores @ 2.6GHz. I'm guessing this SKU will be something along the lines of Kunpeng 920-0426.

If it shares the same Taishan cores manufactured on TSMC N7, then this is just a low-effort repackaged submission to appease Xi's ambitious Chinese-made-for-China hardware goals, and involves no new or interesting IP. China doesn't care if you think it's competitive, as long as it's good enough for them to use in government offices. Their priority is not to sell this shit to you; they just want to kick all foreign-made hardware out to appease Xi's lofty ambitions and their own patriotic ego.

HarmonyOS is the more interesting of the two, as depending on who you ask, it's either geared for IoT usage, or a just-in-case fallback to replace Android on Huawei phones. Not that it's any more a viable or secure choice for us outside of China, but something to look into for sure.

 

[Turmania]

Nice as long as it stays in that country.

 

[Aquinus]

Chinese OS with Chinese tech made by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.

What could possibly go wrong?

I don't want to run a closed source OS from China, particularly one made by a company that has very close ties to Beijing. Thanks, but no thanks. They can keep their privacy violating trojan horse.

 

[Caring1]

They can keep their privacy violating trojan horse.

That's what they said to Microsoft when they insisted on their own version of Windows just for China.
They didn't want to use an O.S. full of backdoors made by a company with close ties to the American Government.

 

[MagnuTron]

That's what they said to Microsoft when they insisted on their own version of Windows just for China.
They didn't want to use an O.S. full of backdoors made by a company with close ties to the American Government.

+1

 

[Joss]

Chinese OS with Chinese tech made by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.

What could possibly go wrong?

This.
Don't buy Chinese if you can!

 

[TheLostSwede]

Why is the top x16 slot shifted compared to the bottom two PCIe slots?
Bad mockup designer?

 

[Th3pwn3r]

This.
Don't buy Chinese if you can!

Considering what's going on with Xiaomi as well...

 

[Aquinus]

That's what they said to Microsoft when they insisted on their own version of Windows just for China.
They didn't want to use an O.S. full of backdoors made by a company with close ties to the American Government.

Sir, sir, would you like to talk about our lord and savior, Linus Torvalds?

 

[zlobby]

Chinese OS with Chinese tech made by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese government.

What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, I love how can we now choose between which govt's built-in backdoors to use.
Shame the Ruskies are still in the 5mm (don't confuse with nm) era. I'd love me to have a system that only dear tavarish Putin can sneak into.

 

[medi01]

Darn good board layout... even fiber?

With possible connections to some place in China, as a bonus!

Or that Chinese OS, what could possibly go wrong...

Hurry, before it sells out!

 

[zlobby]

Considering what's going on with Xiaomi as well...

I'd only trust a vendor (just a bit) if they open their security processors. Both intel and AMD showed abysmal track record when it comes down to PSP, ME and the related cr@p.

With possible connections to some place in China, as a bonus!

Hurry, before it sells out!

With Huawei's dominance in the telco sector, closing the circle E2E with powerful consumer electronics is a wet dream for many 3-letter (edit: far-Eastern) agencies.

 

[kapone32]

This leads me to recommend to everyone not to buy boards from Alibaba going forward. Especially from brands you don't understand or have never heard of.

 

[Ferrum Master]

With possible connections to some place in China, as a bonus!

Or that Chinese OS, what could possibly go wrong...

Hurry, before it sells out!

I am just appreciating the design. It makes sense in my eyes. Unlike some idiocy making the new 12ATX platform having only one nvme slot.

Other than that... there will be plenty of buyers for this... including near east hiding from uncle Sam.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

And people are worried about Microsoft spying on them.

 

[zlobby]

And people are worried about Microsoft spying on them.

Well, with operating systems the choice who to spy on you is wider - M$, Apple, Google. Heck, even Ubuntu had some stains on its reputation. Pick your poison.

Darn good board layout... even fiber?

Just now I saw it has a friggin SFP cage!!! Why aren't we funding this!?!?! I hate some $1 mediocre intel junk on a decent mobo, and I don't mind hooking up an QSFP directly to my switch.

Down with the copper! Viva le fibre!

 

[Turmania]

Get yourself disconnected, all your first world problems solved....

 

[CheapMeat]

What's the point of commenting like this would even be an option for you to choose not to buy in the first place? Yea, YOU'RE SO BRAVE for deciding not to use this? It'll be at Best Buy or Microcenter ASAP! It'll be your ONLY possible choice! Get real. Political virtue signaling is the worst. I for one am going to continue to by spied on my own government like a true patriot; hardware & software wise. Heh.

Why is the top x16 slot shifted compared to the bottom two PCIe slots?
Bad mockup designer?

Hah, I just noticed now too.

 

[sepheronx]

Yes, I love how can we now choose between which govt's built-in backdoors to use.
Shame the Ruskies are still in the 5mm (don't confuse with nm) era. I'd love me to have a system that only dear tavarish Putin can sneak into.

Elbrus 8C and 8CM is 28nm. Both VLIW Elbrus E-2000.

 

[Aquinus]

Well, with operating systems the choice who to spy on you is wider - M$, Apple, Google. Heck, even Ubuntu had some stains on its reputation. Pick your poison.

It's disingenuous to treat all of these institutions as equals when it comes to their actions regarding privacy. Nobody is going to win a purity contest here.

 

[Solaris17]

It's disingenuous to treat all of these institutions as equals when it comes to their actions regarding privacy. Nobody is going to win a purity contest here.

Especially not Cisco, but they are US based so everyone appears to mumble and move along.