Huawei to stop making flagship chipsets as U.S. pressure bites, Chinese media say:
Huawei Technologies Co will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of U.S. pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows.
U.S. pressure on Huawei's suppliers has made it impossible for the company's HiSilicon chip division to keep making the chipsets, key components for mobile phone, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Unit was quoted as saying at the launch of the company's new Mate 40 handset.
[...] "From Sept. 15 onward, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced," Yu said, according to Caixin. "Our AI-powered chips also cannot be processed. This is a huge loss for us."
Huawei's HiSilicon division relies on software from U.S. companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc to design its chips and it outsources the production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses equipment from U.S. companies.
Also at PhoneArena.
Previously: Arrest of Huawei Executive Causing Discontent Among Chinese Elites
Huawei Soldiers on, Announces Nova 5 and Kirin 810
U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
TSMC Dumps Huawei
Huawei on List of 20 Chinese Companies that Pentagon Says are Controlled by People's Liberation Army
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 09 2020, @09:52AM (3 children)
Also if you look at the headline:
that doesn't mean they've actually stopped, it just means that they're claiming they'll stop. Given the sentiment expressed on places like Weibo, "we'll eat grass before we let the US win the trade war", and they will actually do that, I see this more as a negotiation strategy than an admission of defeat. They're not going to give up just like that. The US' strategy would work against a country like Australia (to pick a random example) where people are married to their creature comforts and won't want to give them up, but not against somewhere like China.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:05PM (2 children)
My understanding is that TSMC was allowed to finish fabbing their existing orders for Huawei, which included a "5nm" Kirin SoC.
TSMC Confirms Halt to Huawei Shipments In September [anandtech.com]
Huawei’s 2021 flagship could use a third-party 5nm chipset [gizmochina.com]
That story suggests they will buy SoCs (Dimensity 1XXX?) from MediaTek starting in 2021. Assuming they are allowed to.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:13PM (1 child)
Sure, and even beyond 2021 I'm sure they've got a plan B. And C. And D. They wouldn't give up just like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:18PM
The plan is America having a new president in January.