Huawei introduced the laptop at the beginning of December 2023 Quingyun L540 which is sold exclusively in China. The heart of the mobile computer is a system-on-chip called Kirin 9006C – according to the name, a new product, manufactured in a 5 nm process. Accordingly, suspicions arose that the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer SMIC could have achieved its next big coup after the 7 nm SoC Kirin 9000S, which was introduced at the end of August 2023.
These speculations contradicts the analysis company Techinsights: According to initial analyses, we are certain that the Kirin 9006C is just a relabeled Kirin 9000. Huawei’s chip division Hisilicon had it manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC until 2020 – in their 5 nm process. Apparently only a C was added to the product code on the package; according to the laser-etched date, the packaging was done in 2020.
The technical data already provided a clue that the Kirin 9006C is not a new chip. The number and clock frequencies of the installed Cortex-A55 and A77 cores from ARM are identical to the Kirin 9000. When analyzing the silicon die, Techinsights found that the dimensions and the top metallization layer of both chips are exactly identical. Accordingly, the Kirin 9006C is stock goods that Huawei had stocked up on before the US sanctions against the company came into force.
For SMIC, 5 nm is a big challenge
For processes in the 5 nm class and above, all manufacturers who master them – in addition to TSMC, Samsung and Intel – rely on EUV exposure (g+). However, SMIC has no access to the necessary exposure machines; exports to China were prevented early on by the governments of the USA and the Netherlands.
Accordingly, SMIC has to develop its own process here. According to Techinsights, the manufacturer was still largely based on TSMC for the 7 nm process. Experts agree that SMIC will succeed in this. The only question is how long the company’s engineers will need to do this – and how well the process will work in the end.