Tag Archives: TSMC

Is US Stealing TSMC Chip Technologies From Taiwan?!

Is the US stealing advanced TSMC chip technologies from Taiwan, in the biggest international heist ever?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : US Is Stealing TSMC Chip Technologies From Taiwan!

This message has gone viral on WhatsApp and social media, claiming that two US professors have declared that the US is stealing Taiwan’s most advanced TSMC chip technologies!

It’s very long, so please feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Professor Ling-Chi Wang of UC Berkeley: I think the only way to describe what is happening to TSMC 台積电 in Hsinchu, Taiwan is to call it the biggest international heist, in broad daylight, of Taiwan’s biggest and most valuable manufacturing facility and intellectual property theft, estimated to be worth 4% of Taiwan’s GNP, considered by the people of Taiwan to be their 护国神山, ever undertaken in human history by the U.S. government.

The people of Taiwan are stunned by the magnitude and speed of the heist and the massive airlifting of the manufacturing facility, its most advance know-hows, and top scientists and engineers and their families to Phoenix, Arizona, commencing in December. The U.S. is paying billions to relocate and transport the company to the U.S.

The scale of intellectual robbery is unmatched by other large-scale international robberies I know of. The U.S. justified the robbery by declaring it a matter of “national security” of the U.S., based on the assumption that China will sooner or later seize Taiwan, thus depriving the U.S. and the world of its indispensable products.

What is even more stunning and insulting to the people of Taiwan is the conspicuous absence of any meaningful protest by the Taiwan government of Tsai Ing-wen. In fact, the government is aid and abetting the robbery.

Professor John V Walsh, MD, in San Francisco: First the US frightens them with threats of war and turning Taiwan into a porcupine bristling with American weapons. No one wants to live in Ukraine 2.0.

Then the US offers an “escape hatch” to Arizona where these Taiwanese may find the US anti-China rhetoric a bit much to stomach – and no distinctions made between Taiwanese and Chinese by street toughs.

Disgusting.

加州大學伯克利分校王靈智教授：我認為描述台積電在台灣新竹發生的事情的唯一方式是稱其為在光天化日之下對台灣最大和最有價值的製造設施的最大國際搶劫和竊取知識產權，估計價值達台灣國民生產總值的4%，被台灣人民視為護國神山，人類歷史上從未有過美國政府所為。台灣人民對搶劫的規模和速度以及從 12 月開始向亞利桑那州鳳凰城空運製造設施、最先進的技術訣竅以及頂尖科學家和工程師及其家人感到震驚。美國斥資數十億將公司搬遷運回美國，智力劫案的規模是我所知道的其他大型國際劫案所無法比擬的。美國以中國遲早會奪取台灣為由，宣稱這是美國的“國家安全”問題，以此為搶劫辯護，從而剝奪美國和世界不可或缺的產品。更令台灣人民震驚和侮辱的是，蔡英文政府明顯沒有任何有意義的抗議。事實上，政府正在協助和教唆搶劫。

舊金山醫學博士 John V Walsh 教授：首先，美國以戰爭威脅嚇唬他們，並把台灣變成一頭佈滿美國武器的豪豬。沒有人願意生活在烏克蘭 2.0。

然後，美國向亞利桑那州提供了一個“逃生艙口”，這些台灣人可能會覺得美國的反華言論有點難以接受——街頭惡棍也沒有對台灣人和中國人進行區分。

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Truth : US Is NOT Stealing TSMC Chip Technologies From Taiwan!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created by the Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛), and shared by pro-CCP netizens, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : No Evidence Professor Ling-Chin Wang Wrote It

First, let’s establish some basic facts about Professor Ling-Chi Wang. He is an ethnologist (not technologist), which means he studies and teaches about cultures and societies, not chips or technology.

He is also a Professor Emeritus of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley, which means he is retired.

There is no evidence that Professor Ling Chin-Wang wrote any part of the viral message. He is not on Facebook, and he has not posted anything on his official LinkedIn page either.

The earliest and most complete example of this viral message appears to be written by a Chinese writer called Yu Ligong, who posted it on Facebook on 24 November 2022.

Fact #2 : No Evidence Professor John V. Walsh Wrote It

John V. Walsh was a professor of physiology and neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He has since retired.

He writes on issues of peace and healthcare, but there is no evidence he actually wrote that small section about turning Taiwan into a porcupine of American weapons, or Ukraine 2.0.

Again, the earliest example appears to be the Facebook post by the Chinese writer, Yu Ligong.

Fact #3 : TSMC Is Not Shifting Their Existing Fabs To US

The viral post falsely claims that the US government paid billions to relocate TSMC to the United States, airlifting its manufacturing facility to Arizona.

That’s not true – TSMC will still remain in Taiwan, where most of its fabs are located. The new Arizona fab will merely be another one of its many fabs. That’s why it’s known as Fab 21.

It is also impossible to “airlift” a semiconductor fabrication plant. Have you seen how massive it is?

Fact #4 : TSMC Owns Arizona Fab 21

The viral post falsely claims that the US government is robbing Taiwan of its prized intellectual property – TSMC’s most advanced chip technologies.

That’s patently false, because TSMC isn’t building a semiconductor plant for the US government. TSMC is building a new fab in Arizona, which it will fully own.

The TSMC Arizona plant, when fully completed, will be one of the most advanced semiconductor fabs in the world, producing both 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips.

Fact #5 : TSMC Owns Its Intellectual Property

Regardless of where it builds its wafer fabs, TSMC continues to own its intellectual property, except possibly in China.

This was pointed out by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in his June 2022 op-ed arguing for more subsidies for American chipmakers.

… foreign chipmakers vying for U.S. subsidies will keep their valuable intellectual property on their own shores, ensuring that the most lucrative and cutting-edge manufacturing stays there and requiring the U.S. to make the difficult choice between forgoing the advanced chips necessary for critical national security applications or relying on insecure, foreign supply chains for them.

Unlike China, the United States does not demand technology transfers to gain access to its massive market. So no, the US does not gain TSMC’s intellectual properties just because it subsidises Fab 21 in Arizona.

It may be different in China, where the CCP government is notorious for insisting on technology transfers.

Fact #6 : TSMC Arizona Is Second US Fab

TSMC Arizona isn’t even the first semiconductor plant the Taiwanese company built in the United States.

Back in 1995, TSMC started work on a $1.2 billion semiconductor plant called Fab 11 at Camas, Washington, which produces 8-inch wafers.

Fact #7 : TSMC Has Two Fabs In China!

If the writer believes that building a fab overseas means that the foreign country owns TSMC’s intellectual property, then it would mean that China “stole” TSMC’s intellectual property as well.

That’s because TSMC has not one, but TWO wafer fabs in China!

Fab 10 in Shanghai, which produces 200 mm wafers
Fab 16 in Nanjing, which produces 300 mm wafers

In April 2021, TSMC announced that it would expand capacity at their Nanjing fab, which it would also upgrade to produce smaller 16 nm chips.

Recommended : Apple Freezes Use Of China’s YMTC NAND Chips!

Fact #8 : This Is Just Chinese Propaganda

This is just another example of Chinese propaganda created by the infamous Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛).

All of the wumao articles and videos that I looked at so far have proven to be false… at every instance. So please watch out for such false claims.

Please help us fight fake news – SHARE this article, and SUPPORT our work!

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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How Biren Got Its Own AI Chips Banned At TSMC!

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TSMC stopped making artificial intelligence chips for China’s Biren Technology, and it was all Biren’s own fault!

TSMC Stops Making Biren AI Chips Over US Sanctions

TSMC – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – has suspended production of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Biren Technology.

TSMC was forced to make this decision after public domain information revealed that the Biren BR100 and BR104 chips outperformed the NVIDIA A100 chip, which was used as the baseline of US sanctions.

While TSMC has not reached a conclusion on whether the top-of-the-line Biren BR100 or the slower BR104 meet or exceed US government threshold on advanced AI chip technology restrictions, it decided to stop production and supply of the Biren chips for now.

For TSMC to continue producing BR100 or BR104 chips, Biren must now prove that their chips do not offer “peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the [NVIDIA] A100“, or get an export licence from the US Department of Commerce.

And believe it or not – it was Biren Technology that created this mess for itself!

How Biren Screwed Up Its Own BR100 AI Chips

Biren, which is one of China’s most promising semiconductor design firms, earlier claimed that its AI chips that were being produced by TSMC are not covered by the latest US export restrictions.

However, its own website touts that the BR100 family of chips offers “world-class performance“, and has “improved by more than 3X” compared to mainstream rivals.

On top of that, Biren actually released a press statement on September 9, 2022, declaring that the slower BR104 was proven by the MLPerf to beat the NVIDIA A100!

Releasing such a statement less than 2 weeks after the US government ordered both AMD and NVIDIA to stop exporting their MI250 and A100 and faster AI chips to China is either amazing chutzpah, or a combination of hubris and idiocy.

Either way, the US government took notice, and TSMC came under pressure to comply with American export restrictions. Awesome PR, but stupid move, Biren…

Take a look at the benchmark results that Biren itself released into public domain, showing that the slower BR104 chip was between 27% and 58% faster than the NVIDIA A100.

With such results, the BR104 would certainly fall under the latest US tech export restrictions. No wonder TSMC quickly stopped making and supplying Biren BR100 series chips.

As powerful as the BR100 and BR104 GPGPU chips may be, they are now dead in the water as TSMC will not manufacture them anymore, and Biren Technology has no plausible alternatives for 7nm fabrication.

Biren BR100 AI Chips That TSMC Stopped Producing

The Biren BR100 and slower BR104 are General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) chips, which are targeted at artificial intelligence applications.

They are both fabricated on the TSMC 7nm process technology, and use chipset and 2.5D Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technologies to achieve high yield, and high performance.

The Biren BR100 family of GPGPU chips supports up to eight independent virtual instances (SVI) – each physically isolated with their own hardware resources, for improved security.

Their chips are designed with a proprietary Blink high-speed GPU interconnect bus offering bandwidth of up to 448 GB/s, with the ability to connect up to 8 cards in a single node, using state-of-the-art PCI Express 5.0.

Biren Technology offers two BR100-based products – the Bili 100P OCP Accelerator Module (OAM), and the Bill 104P PCI Express accelerator card.

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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US To Block New Advanced Chip Fabs In China!

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The US aims to block the construction of new advanced chip fabs in China and countries of concern like Russia.

Here is what you need to know…

US To Fund Building Of Advanced Chip Fabs!

The US Congress just passed the historic CHIPS and Science Act (HR 4346) – a massive $280 billion bill designed to bolster innovation and tech hubs in the United States.

The legislation passed with a Senate vote of 64-33, and a House vote of 243-187, approving :

$76 billion of funding to revive and boost chip production in the United States
$81 billion for the National Science Foundation over 5 years, for research, equipment and STEM education
Almost $10 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology

TSMC, Intel and Samsung are expected to benefit from the billions of dollars of funding, which would subsidise their construction of new advanced chip fabs in the United States.

US To Block New Advanced Chip Fabs In China!

There is however a big caveat in the legislation that the White House is expected to sign – any company that receives funding will be barred from building new advanced chip fabs in China and other countries of concern, like Russia.

The CHIPS and Sciences Act specifically bars companies that receive federal funding from “materially expanding” production of chips more advanced than 28 nanometres (28 nm) in countries of concern like China and Russia, for 10 years.

28 nm chips are not state-of-art, with production first starting more than 10 years ago – in 2011. However, they are still used in many applications, and China is free to keep producing these chips.

This move though will essentially limit development of advanced chips in China, by blocking foreign chipmakers from investing in more advanced fabs.

Intel had earlier lobbied hard against this move. In late 2021, Intel wanted to expand production in China but was pressured to sell its Dalian wafer plant to South Korea’s SK Hynix. Intel now only has chip packaging and testing facilities in China.

But that changed, and now Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is a big proponent of the bill, even suggesting that it might forego building its Ohio mega fab and shift it to Europe if the legislation did not pass.

Currently, the only semiconductor companies investing in fabs in China are Samsung and TSMC. So if they choose to accept US funding, both companies will have to stop building fabs that can produce chips that are more advanced than 28 nm.

Of the potential recipients of US funding, TSMC is the only company making relatively advanced chips in China. Its Nanjing fabs currently make 28 nm and more advanced 16 nm chips.

Unless TSMC spurns US funding, it won’t be able to invest in more advanced fabs in China. This will force China to rely on its own SMIC to develop more advanced chipmaking technologies.

While SMIC has had some success with a 7nm process using older DUV technology, it came at the expense of yield and chip complexity.

Unless China is somehow able to develop its own EUV technology, it’s pretty much end game for more advanced chip production in China… for ten years.

US Quietly Expands Chip Equipment Ban To Fabs In China

In addition to the looming CHIPS Act, the US government also expanded its ban on the sale of machines for fabricating advanced chips.

The US government had earlier banned the sale of tools that allow China to manufacture chips at 10 nm or smaller. That ban was just extended to include tools that would allow the manufacture of chips 14 nm or smaller.

American equipment makers like LAM Research and KLA Corp. have received letters about this expanded ban, which appears to be limited to logic chips (like computer processors), but not memory chips.

According to the US Commerce Department, the move was meant to impair China’s ability to manufacture advanced chips :

The Biden Administration is focused on impairing PRC efforts to manufacture advanced semiconductors to address significant national security risks to the United States.

However, this move appears to be merely officiating what is already being practiced – the US Commerce Department had already declined many licences to sell 14nm fab equipment.

The Biden Administration is also pushing the Netherlands and Japan to ban ASML Holdings NV and Nikon Corp from selling advanced chip making equipment to China.

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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China Bans Taiwan Food Over Pelosi, But Not Chips!

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China just banned food imports over 100 Taiwanese companies right before US Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan, but unsurprisingly not microchips!

Here is what you need to know…

China Bans Taiwan Food Products Over Pelosi!

While US Speaker Nancy Pelosi was flying to Taiwan from Malaysia, the General Administration of Customs for China announced an import ban on food products from over 100 Taiwanese companies.

Of those 100 Taiwanese companies, 35 are exporters of biscuits and pastries, including famous Taiwanese companies like Kuo Yuan Ye Corp (郭元益), Yu Jan Shin (裕珍馨), Kuai Kuai Co (乖乖), Imei Foods Co (義美食品), Chiate Bakery (佳德) and Kuang Ta Hsiang Foodstuffs Co (廣達香).

The other companies exported food products like tea, honey and seafood. Of the 3,200 Taiwanese food products registered for export to China, 2,066 (64.6%) had their imports suspended.

Officially, Beijing says that the blacklisted companies failed to renew their export registration, and can only sell their products until the end of August 2022.

However, the late night announcement, and the fact that only Taiwanese exporters are required to file their registration documents by June 2022, instead of June 2023 like exporters from other countries; strongly suggest that this move was motivated by Pelosi’s visit.

China May Ban Taiwan Food Over Pelosi, But Not Chips!

Despite the dramatic late night announcement, this move was relatively benign as the banned exports only make up 0.1% or US$650 million of Taiwan’s total exports.

Last year, Taiwan exported US$44 million worth of pastries to China, but that fell to only US$10 million during the first half of 2022.

Seafood exports to China were more substantial at US$280 million, but tea exports were just under US$32 million, and honey exports was a minuscule US$35,000.

On the other hand, China does not dare to ban the import of Taiwanese microchips or electronics, because it has grown reliant on them.

After the US imposed sanctions on Chinese chipmakers in 2018, China increased imports of Taiwanese memory chips by a whopping 57% in just 3 years!

In fact, Taiwanese exports to China surged by 24.8% to an all-time high of US$188.9 billion in 2021, largely due to high demand for their computer chips.

No matter what their Wolf Warriors may threaten, China is still too reliant on Taiwan for high-end semiconductors to really threaten its supply, and it is not ready to invade Taiwan with a realistic chance of success.

By targeting only a small portion of relatively inconsequential Taiwanese imports, China is just slapping Taiwan on the wrist.

The Taiwanese should play along and moan like they have been mortally wounded to give China some face, so it can (gracefully) retreat from the uncomfortable corner it back itself into.

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did China Make 7nm Chips In Spite Of US Sanctions?!

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Did China successfully fabricate 7nm chips, despite US sanctions on advanced chip manufacturing technology?

Well, yes, but not quite. Here is what you need to know about China’s mysterious 7nm chips!

China Made 7nm Chips In Spite Of US Sanctions!

A TechInsights report recently concluded that China has successfully created 7nm chips since last year.

This caused quite a ruckus, because it essentially meant that China jumped two generations ahead in chip manufacturing technology!

The TechInsights team bought a MinerVa mining ASIC which used a custom chip that has been manufactured by China’s SMIC since July 2021.

When they examined the chip, they discovered that it was fabricated on a 7nm process that appears to be a “close copy” of a 7nm process used by TSMC – the Taiwanese foundry giant.

The MinerVa chip is small – at just 19.3 mm², with 120 chips populating the MinerVa board. Each mining ASIC has 3 of these boards, for a total of 360 chips and a total power consumption of 3300 watts.

This discovery is deeply concerning to many people, because it meant that China has more advanced chip manufacturing technology than is even available in the United States or EU.

After all, US sanctioned the sale of advanced chip manufacturing technology to China – which was meant to crippled China’s ability to manufacture such chips.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer used this report to stress the danger of delaying the $50 billion subsidy package for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

Members of both sides know that America’s chips crisis is sending shock waves across the economy.

It is endangering our national security. […] China’s top chips maker has now likely advanced its tech by two generations, threatening U.S. competitiveness.

But the situation really isn’t as dire as many people make it out to be…

SMIC / China Barely Made Those 7nm Chips

After the report was released, the Internet fell into two main camps – American politicians and China hawks bemoaning the “loss” of Western chip making advantage, and pro-CCP netizens celebrating it.

First, let me start by congratulating China / SMIC on achieving this feat despite being hobbled by US sanctions on crucial chipmaking technology.

Whether China / SMIC “copied / stole / bought” the technology knowhow from TSMC whose 7nm process it closely resembles, it is still a remarkable achievement.

That said, SMIC / China barely made those 7nm chips, and here are the reasons why…

SMIC manufactured these 7nm chips using older Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) machines, instead of the state-of-art Extreme Ultraviolet Light (EUV) lithography machines made by Dutch company ASML.

This isn’t extraordinary in itself – TSMC and Samsung had much earlier developed 7nm process nodes using the older DUV machines. However, this comes at the cost of “increased process complexity and design rule restrictions“.

That is likely why the MinerVa chip is not only very small, it actually lacks SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) that is critical in processors that run our computers and smartphones.

The simpler design and small size allow SMIC to obtain sufficient workable chips, even with a poor yield. However, the cost of chip would be much higher than if it was manufactured on a higher-quality process.

So for all intents and purposes – this should be considered as a niche / prototype 7nm process, and not a true 7nm process node.

On top of that, SMIC apparently isn’t capable of producing large quantities of these 7nm chips, suggesting either a yield problem, or difficulty in scaling up.

MinerVa has not been able to deliver the mining ASICs based on these SMIC 7nm chips in large numbers. A Bitcoin mining company – Stronghold Digital Mining, for example, said that it ordered 15,000 miners from MinerVa but only received about 3,200 units as of March 2022.

For China / SMIC to present a true “threat” as far as chipmaking is concerned, it would have to be capable of manufacturing MILLIONS of chips, not thousands.

Regardless of whether the Americans are howling in despair, or the pro-CCP netizens are howling in delight, China really does not have true 7nm chipmaking capability for mass production yet.

And even if they somehow manage to improve and scale up this 7nm DUV process, they cannot make more advanced chips without EUV machines made by ASML.

As long as the Dutch government holds firm on blocking sale of ASML’s EUV machines to China, this is likely as far as they can go… unless they invade Taiwan, which is where TSMC is based and has the world’s most advanced chip manufacturing facilities.

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Did China Lock Down Shanghai To Spite US Over Ukraine?!

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Did China lock down Shanghai, not to fight COVID-19, but to spite US companies over the Ukraine war?

Take a look at the viral article, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : China Locked Down Shanghai To Spite US Over Ukraine War!

People are sharing an article by Kanthan Pillay, which claimed that China locked down Shanghai not to fight COVID-19 but to spite US companies over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It’s a rather long post, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts…

Shanghai Lockdown Not Because Of Covid -19!!

Two weeks after Russia’s forces moved into Ukraine, China locked down Shanghai.

Let me hit you with some bullet points:

More than 800 multinational corporations have regional headquarters in Shanghai . Among them, 121 are Fortune Global 500 companies, including Apple, Qualcomm, General Motors, Pepsico.

More than 70 000 foreign companies have offices in Shanghai. More than 24 000 of these are Japanese.

The shutdown of Tesla’s operation in Shanghai because of the lockdown has set the company back with lost production of 40 000 units of electric vehicles. That’s just one car company. Volkswagen and General Motors both have factories in Shanghai.

Ford has a global design center in Shanghai.

Let’s talk about Apple: iPhone supplier Pegatron has its major factory in Shanghai and another in nearby Kunshan. Both have been shut by the lockdown.

TSMC , the world’s most valuable manufacturer of semiconductors, has a major production facility in Shanghai. (TSMC makes 7-nanometre and 5-nanometre chips used by the Apple A14 and M1 SoC .)

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has a global R&D centre in Shanghai.

To top this off, Shanghai is the world’s biggest container port moving more than 47 million shipping containers per year. Shutting down the city for more than a month means 4 million of those have potentially been impacted.

As can be seen, the simple act of shutting down Shanghai has delivered a body blow to global giants in the US sphere of influence at a time when they are already scrambling to reset their economies after their disastrous sanctions against Russia.

Now I know that correlation does not imply causation.

But it is a fact that Russia and China laid out the parameters for a new world order in February…

And it is a fact that their respective actions over the next weeks have brought the economies of the western powers to a grinding halt…

“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true.”

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Truth : China Did NOT Lock Down Shanghai To Spite US Over Ukraine War!

I have read many conspiracy theories about China and the Ukraine War, but this has to be one of the stupidest I have read to date.

I cannot believe I have to actually explain why China did not lock down Shanghai just to spite US companies over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But here we go…

Fact #1 : China Has Been Locking Down Cities Since 2020

First, I should point out that China has been locking down cities since the COVID-19 pandemic started in Wuhan.

This isn’t a new tactic. China locks down entire cities as part of their COVID Zero policy.

In fact, China locked down 4 additional cities in the first two months of 2022, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine :

4 January : Yuzhou, Henan province
11 January : Anyang and Zhengzhou, Henan province
7 February : Baise, Jilin province

It is therefore ridiculous for Kanthan Pillay to claim that China locked down Shanghai to spite US companies.

Fact #2 : Shanghai’s COVID-19 Outbreak Began On 28 February

Ironically, Shanghai’s COVID-19 outbreak began on the same day Russia chose to invade Ukraine – 28 February 2022.

I’m surprised Kanthan Pillay did not suggest that the Chinese introduced the Shanghai outbreak as part of a false flag operation to spite US companies. LOL!

Fact #3 : Shanghai Lockdown Only Started A Month Later

Kanthan Pillay falsely claimed that China locked down Shanghai two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Why two weeks? Why not immediately?

In any case, Shanghai only adopted “area-separated and batch-separated control” on 28 March 2022 – a month after their COVID-19 outbreak started, and a month after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Only a week later – on 5 April 2022, did Shanghai put the entire city under lockdown.

Fact #4 : Hong Kong Has More Regional HQs Than Shanghai

In his first “bullet point”, Kanthan Pillay said that more than 800 multinational corporations have their regional headquarters in Shanghai.

What he does not point out to you is that Hong Kong has almost twice as many regional headquarters as Shanghai – 1,457 as of 2021.

If the Chinese wanted to “attack” US companies by targeting their regional headquarters, they would do better to lock down Hong Kong.

But wait – Hong Kong is still NOT under lockdown, even with a massive surge of Omicron cases.

Fact #5 : Regional HQ Not As Important As Factories

Kanthan Pillay does not seem to understand that regional headquarters are not as critical to US companies as the factories that produce goods for them.

Many employees of these regional headquarters can conduct their work from home, even hold meetings virtually from anywhere in the world. So using regional headquarters and design centres as examples of Chinese sabotage is stupid.

Factories, on the other hand, cannot produce goods virtually. Hence, factories that produce goods for US companies are far more important than regional HQs and design centres.

Fact #6 : Shanghai Lockdown Affects All Companies

Kanthan Pillay is apparently unaware thatChina’s lockdown of Shanghai is not limited to US citizens or companies.

The Shanghai lockdown affects all residents, whether they are Chinese citizens or foreigners. Similarly, Chinese companies are affected just as badly as their Western counterparts.

Even more importantly – there are far more Chinese companies in Shanghai than Western companies. More Chinese citizens are being employed by Chinese companies in Shanghai, than Western companies.

If China intentionally locked down Shanghai to spite US companies, they would be sacrificing their own economy to do that.

The Chinese are not quite so stupid as to cut off their noses, just to spite their own faces.

Fact #7 : TSMC Shanghai Fab Is Not State Of Art

Kanthan Pillay also seems to be unaware that the TSMC plant in China is not state of the art, and does not manufacture 7 nm or 5 nm chips as he alleged.

The TSMC Fab 10 foundry in Shanghai was completed around the end of 2004, and produces 8-inch wafers using old 0.25 micron and 0.35 micron processes from the 1990s.

Fact #8 : Shanghai Semiconductor Companies Not Affected By Lockdown

Despite the entire city of Shanghai being under strict lockdown, its semiconductor companies continued to maintain full production.

They managed to achieve this through closed-loop systems, where most employees work on-site while others work remotely from home.

Both TSMC and SMIC say that they are maintaining full production in Shanghai using such closed-loop systems.

Fact #9 : Companies Can Shift To Other Countries

Kanthan Pillay ludicrously believe that China shut down Shanghai to deliver “a body blow to global giants in the US sphere of influence“.

Multinational companies, especially those from the West, can and have shifted to other countries or states, if conditions become unfavourable.

Some have already started shifted production from China to Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.

If China did really do this just to spite US companies, it would be one more reason to shift their operations to other countries. It’s not like they can only build factories in China.

Fact #10 : Chinese Sacrifice Will Not Help Russia

What Kanthan Pillay does not explain is WHY on Earth would China sacrifice its own people and economy to help Russia?

And how does crippling Shanghai’s economy help Russia? Sure, Tesla will miss its production target… again, but so what?

These are public-listed companies, not the US government. Whatever happens to these companies won’t have a material effect on the US government, only its shareholders.

Needless to say – it won’t sway Western sanctions on Russia, and it certainly won’t help Russia in any way.

Fact #11 : Western Economies Are Still Doing Fine

Kanthan Pillay ended his article by claiming that such actions by Russia and China have “brought the economies of the Western powers to a grinding halt“.

I have no idea what he has been smoking, but it must be some fantastic shit, because none of the Western economies are remotely close to collapsing!

In fact, the US Fed just made the biggest interest rate increase in 22 years, announcing a 0.5% interest rate hike to tackle inflation.

Other Western economies are poised to similarly raise their interest rates. They would not be raising interest rates if their economies were collapsing as Pillay alleged.

The Kanthan Pillay article is nothing more than a meaningless self-masturbatory fantasy.

Unfortunately, it’s being widely shared by the Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛) and pro-CCP netizens.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out!

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Intel To Build New $7 Billion Chip Plant In Penang, Malaysia!

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Intel just announced that they are going to build a new $7 billion chip packaging and testing facility in Penang, Malaysia!

Intel To Build New $7 Billion Chip Plant In Malaysia!

On 16 December 2021, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger officially announced a $7 billion (RM30 billion) investment to build a new chip packaging and testing facility in Penang, Malaysia.

The new Intel facility will add advanced chip packaging capabilities, as well as expand their existing assembly test manufacturing and die preparation capability in Malaysia.

This investment continues Intel’s 49-year old presence in Penang, and is expected to create over 4,000 Intel jobs, as well as 5,000 construction jobs for Malaysians.

The new facility will not address the current semiconductor shortage though, as it will only begin production in 2024.

Intel has two new plants in Arizona, United States, that will also become fully-operational in 2024; with further plans to invest up to €80 billion (US$90.5 billion) to build new chip plants in Europe.

Intel’s New $7 Billion Chip Plant In Malaysia : Diversity Is Key!

The new Penang plant appears to be part of Gelsinger’s plans to diversify chip production globally to avoid any production shock from geopolitical troubles (think Taiwan vs China), or natural disasters from earthquakes and climate change.

Gelsinger had earlier warned, “Taiwan is not a stable place. Beijing sent 27 warplanes to Taiwan’s air defence identification zone last week. Does that make you feel more comfortable or less?”

That drew the ire of TSMC Chairman and CEO, Morris Chang, who remarked that Gelsinger does not have “enough time” to take Intel back to the top (of the semiconductor industry).

While Intel did have an earlier retirement age limit of 65 (Gelsinger turns 61 in March 2022), that was since been extended to 75.

So Intel under Gelsinger may have a chance to wrest back significant market share from TSMC, before he retires.

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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AMD @ Computex 2021 : Everything They Announced!

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AMD unveiled a WHOLE SLEW of new products and technologies at Computex 2021!

Here is a recap of everything AMD announced at Computex 2021!

AMD @ Computex 2021 : Everything They Announced!

On 1 June 2021, AMD kicked off their virtual Computex 2021 press conference, announcing a whole slew of new products and technologies!

Let’s take a look at what AMD announced at Computex 2021!

3rd Gen EPYC Beats Intel Xeon Scalable!

AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su showed how the dual-socket 3rd Gen EPYC 7763 system beat the dual-socket Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 system by 50%!

2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 delivered 201,334 Java operations per second
2P AMD EPYC 7763 delivered 301,297 Java operations per second

This is because the EPYC 7763 has far more cores than the Xeon Platinum 8380 – 64 cores versus just 40 cores!

AMD RDNA 2 Coming To Automotive + Mobile!

AMD is working to bring the RDNA 2 gaming architecture to industry leaders in the automotive and mobile segments :

Tesla Model S + Model X

The new infotainment systems in the Tesla Model S and Model X are powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded APU, with an AMD RDNA 2-based GPU capable of AAA gaming!

Samsung Exynos

The next-generation Samsung Exynos SoC will feature custom AMD RDNA 2-based graphics IP, that will introduce raytracing and variable rate shading capabilities to flagship mobile devices!

AMD Ryzen 5000G Desktop APUs

Dr. Lisa Su also announced that they are introducing two AMD Ryzen 5000G series desktop APUs, that will be available to the DIY market starting 5 August 2021.

AMD Ryzen 7 5700G

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G has an 8-core, 16-thread processor, with a base clock of 3.8 GHz and a boost clock of 4.6 GHz.

It has 4 GB of L2 cache, and 16 GB of L3 cache; and 8-core integrated Radeon graphics clocked at 2.0 GHz.

This 65 watt desktop APU will have a launch price of US$359.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G has an 6-core, 12-thread processor, with a base clock of 3.9 GHz and a boost clock of 4.4 GHz.

It has 3 GB of L2 cache, and 16 GB of L3 cache; and 7-core integrated Radeon graphics clocked at 1.9 GHz.

This 65 watt desktop APU will have a launch price of US$259.

AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Desktop CPUs

While not mentioned in the main Computex 2021 press conference, AMD also launched the Ryzen PRO 5000 series desktop processors based on the Zen 3 core!

AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 G-Series (65W)

Ryzen 7 5750G : 8 core, 16 thread, 3.8 GHz to 4.6 GHz, 4 MB L2, 16 MB L3
Ryzen 5 5650G : 6 core, 12 thread, 3.9 GHz to 4.4 GHz, 3 MB L2, 16 MB L3
Ryzen 3 5350G : 4 core, 8 thread, 4.0 GHz to 4.2 GHz, 2 MB L2, 8 MB L3

AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 GE-Series (35W)

Ryzen 7 5750GE : 8 core, 16 thread, 3.2 GHz to 4.6 GHz, 4 MB L2, 16 MB L3
Ryzen 5 5650GE : 6 core, 12 thread, 3.4 GHz to 4.4 GHz, 3 MB L2, 16 MB L3
Ryzen 3 5350GE : 4 core, 8 thread, 3.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz, 2 MB L2, 8 MB L3

You can get the full details in this official AMD deep dive into the Ryzen PRO 5000 series desktop processors!

AMD Radeon RX 6000M Series Mobile Graphics

Scott Herkelman, Vice President & General Manager of AMD Graphics Business Unit, officially announced the introduction of the Radeon RX 6000M series mobile graphics for laptop gaming.

AMD Radeon RX 6800M

Their flagship model has a 2.3 GHz game clock and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 120 fps gaming at 1440p.

AMD says that it will offer significantly better performance than the competition :

40% to 70% better gaming performance than the GeForce RTX 2070 at 1440p Max Settings.
14% to 40% better gaming performance than the GeForce RTX 3080 while gaming on battery.

AMD Radeon RX 6700M

This model has a 2.3 GHz game clock and 10 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 100 fps gaming at 1440p.

AMD Radeon RX 6600M

This model has a 2.177 GHz game clock and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 100 fps gaming at 1080p.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR)

FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR for short, is AMD’s spatial upscaling technology that is designed to boost frame rates, while delivering a high-quality gaming experience.

Think of it as AMD’s version of NVIDIA’s DLSS. But while DLSS is proprietary, FidelityFX Super Resolution is open-source, and will be supported on both AMD processors and GPUs as well as NVIDIA GPUs!

More than 10 game developers plan to integrate FSR into their top titles and gamer engines in 2021.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) will be available starting 22 June 2021.

AMD Advantage Gaming Laptops

Think of AMD Advantage as a marketing programme, based around a “design framework” of premium gaming features.

Amplified Performance : AMD Ryzen processor + AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics + AMD Radeon Software for gaming at 100 fps at 1080p
Premium Displays : 144Hz+ with LFC, low latency, AMD FreeSync Premium, 300 nits+ brightness, IPS / OLED panels, 100% sRGB / 72% NTSC minimum
Built To Game : NVMe SSD, less than 40°C WASD keyboard temperatures when gaming, >10 hours binge watching on battery

AMD 3D Chiplet Technology

AMD continues to build on their packaging technologies with their new 3D Chiplet technology, developed in collaboration with TSMC.

It enhances their existing chipset architecture with 3D stacking using a hybrid bond approach that provides over 200X the interconnect density of 2D chipsets and more than 15X the density of existing 3D packaging solutions.

This new 3D chiplet technology also consumes less energy than current 3D solutions, and is the most flexible active-on-active silicon stacking technology.

In Computex 2021, Dr. Lisa Su showed off the 3D vertical SRAM cache bonded to an AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processor prototype.

AMD is on-track to begin production on high-end computing products with 3D chiplets by the end of 2021.

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Apple M1 Gaming : Watch It Run The Witcher 3! 😲

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Windows gaming on the ARM-based Apple M1 is possible!

Watch how well the Apple M1 runs The Witcher 3 using CrossOver 20!

Apple M1 Gaming : Watch It Run The Witcher 3 On CrossOver 20!

MrMacRight successfully ran The Witcher 3 on CrossOver 20, using the 2020 Apple MacBook Pro with the new ARM-based Apple M1 SoC.

Here was his recorded gameplay of The Witcher 3 at the 1080p resolution, with the Medium graphics and post-processing presets, and VSync enabled.

He could not get the FPS counter to work, but it looks smooth and very playable, albeit with some visual artefacts.

Basically – Apple M1 gaming is not only possible, it is possible to play Windows games!

Video Credit : MrMacRight

Windows Gaming On Apple M1 : Rosetta 2 + Windows API Translation!

That quick gameplay showcase of The Witcher 3 shows that Windows gaming is possible on the Apple M1.

The ability to run The Witcher 3 on CrossOver 20, and at such playable frame rates, is important for two reasons.

Windows App Compatibility

The Witcher 3 is a 64-bit Windows-only game, so you wouldn’t expect it to run well on the ARM-based Apple M1, right?

Running it on the Apple M1 involves translating Windows API calls using CrossOver, and then translating x86 instructions to ARM instructions using Rossetta 2.

Yet it not only worked, it ran pretty well on the Apple M1!

Performance

While AppleGamers was not able to obtain a frame rate, The Witcher 3 appears to run pretty well at the 1080p resolution.

That shows that the Apple M1’s integrated 8-core GPU is fast, and will have no problem handling native ARM games at 1080p, and likely 1440p as well.

Apple M1 : A Quick Primer

The Apple M1 is the first ARM-based SoC (System on a Chip) designed by Apple for use in Mac computers.

Packing 16 billion transistors, it is the first chip to be manufactured on the new 5 nm TSMC process technology.

It comes with 4 high-performance Firestorm CPU cores, 4 power-efficient Icestorm cores, an 8-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine.

As the M1 is based on the ARM architecture, you can natively run iPhone and iPad apps on it. However, existing macOS apps will have to be ported over, or translated on-the-fly using Rosetta 2.

It is currently available in these Apple Mac computers :

2020 MacBook Air : US | UK | AU | MY | SG
2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch : US | UK | AU | MY | SG
2020 Mac mini : US | UK | AU | MY | SG

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Fact Check : AMD Ryzen 4000 Will Use 5nm TSMC Process?

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Is it true that the upcoming AMD Ryzen 4000 (Zen 3) desktop processors will be fabricated on the 5nm TSMC process, instead of 7nm as announced? Let’s find out!

AMD Ryzen 4000 : Zen 2 | Zen 3

At CES 2020, AMD launched the Ryzen 4000 family of mobile processors, which only just kicked off after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AMD is expected to introduce the Ryzen 4000 family of desktop processors, built on a newer Zen 3 microarchitecture, later this year.

AMD’s naming convention confuses people, because the Ryzen 4000 mobile processors are 3rd Gen Ryzen processors, while the upcoming Ryzen 4000 desktop processors will be 4th Gen Ryzen processors.

To make it easier for you to understand, we created this table to differentiate the two processor families.

Specifications	Ryzen 4000 Desktop	Ryzen 4000 Mobile
Ryzen Generation	4th Gen	3rd Gen
Microarchitecture	Zen 3	Zen 2
Fabrication Process	Improved 7 nm	7 nm
Launch Date	Late 2020	Jan 2020

DigiTimes : AMD Ryzen 4000 Will Use 5nm TSMC Process

A DigiTimes article, purportedly translated and posted by RetiredEngineer, claimed that the next-generation AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop processors, using the Zen 3 microarchitecture, will be fabricated on the brand-new 5nm process technology, instead of 7nm as announced earlier.

Rumor has it that AMD and TSMC have adjusted their foundry blueprints. The Ryzen 4000 series of desktop processors originally expected to launch at the end of 2020 will now use TSMC’s enhanced 5nm process (5nm Plus) instead of 7nm EUV, clearly demonstrating that AMD is now considered a tier-one customer for TSMC.

This new development confirms earlier news that TSMC, which only recently entered the 5nm era in April, is accelerating its enhanced 5nm process, bringing forward the mass production schedule to 4Q; and the enhanced 5nm Ryzen series processors will also put unprecedented pressure on Intel. Both TSMC and AMD declined to comment on rumors.

In the first quarter of 2020, AMD benefitted from the pandemic, which boosted demand due to the work-from-home economy. PC and server sales exceeded expectations; Ryzen and EPYC series processors shipments were strong, driving first quarter revenue up by 40% compared to the same period in 2019. Earnings were also better than market expectations.

Despite AMD’s conservative outlook for Q2, with revenue estimates between $1.75B and $1.95B, it is still up by 21% compared with the same period in 2019, and up 4% sequentially, still a good result despite the traditional low season for PCs and the impact of the pandemic.

As understood, AMD’s desktop and server shipments have strengthened across the board since the second half of 2019, and demand has exceeded market expectations. Even AMD themselves and TSMC were caught by surprise. This has led to significant improvements in AMD’s profitability. TSMC happily welcomes the growing strength of its chip customers.

According to sources in the semiconductor industry, AMD had announced a comprehensive partnership with TSMC for sub-7nm processes, and has also confirmed mass production schedules for 7nm, 7nm EUV, 5nm and 3nm products. However, beyond expectations, AMD’s performance took a Great Leap Forward over the last one and a half years. Board, PC and server manufacturers significantly increased their ‘weightage’ (adoption of AMD products relative to others), in part due to Intel’s chip shortages. More importantly, the partnership with TSMC resulted in drastically improved product performance and yield, as well as price competitiveness for AMD, leading to rising shipments and market share quarter after quarter.

In 2020, because of the huge increase in sales, AMD has been urgently chasing after TSMC to expedite orders. The size of those orders were not small, becoming the greatest fallback for TSMC, which got caught in the Huawei ban crisis, making demand and production planning extremely difficult. As a result, TSMC is also adjusting (broadening) its services for AMD, and in considering the optimum allocation of production capacity, modified the process plans for AMD’s products.

As understood, TSMC has entered the 5nm era since April. The enhanced version of 5nm will also enter mass production in Q4, ahead of market expectations, and the first customer to adopt it is AMD, with its new Ryzen 4000 series processors.

AMD’s new generation Ryzen 4000 series processor (codenamed Vermeer), originally planned to use 7nm EUV, will be unveiled around Sep-Oct, but in line with the mass production schedule of TSMC’s enhanced 5nm process, will only be launched at the end of the year or during CES in Jan 2021.

According to semiconductor industry players, AMD plonked down a lot of money to enter the enhanced 5nm era, hoping to build upon its success and expand its leadership in advanced process technology before Intel’s 10nm process is fully deployed and 7nm process is yet to debut, once again capitalising on the narrative around introduction of advanced process technology and performance/efficiency improvements, to narrow its market share with Intel.

Judging by AMD’s current momentum and product performance, the enhanced 5nm Ryzen series processors will put unprecedented pressure on Intel. If Intel does not cut prices or accelerate the introduction of 10nm desktop processors, its empire may be gradually eroded by AMD, ushering in the biggest change in the global PC platform competitive landscape in 15 years: AMD’s market share can be expected to reach historical highs.

Separately, Nvidia has finally joined the 7nm bandwagon recently, entering full production in the second half of the year, while 5nm capacity continues to be reserved for Apple and HiSilicon, although the status of HiSilicon’s orders after Q4 is unknown due to the heightened US ban on Huawei.

Now, we have not directly seen the DigiTimes article, so we cannot vouch for its authenticity. We only have this picture to go by :

5 Reasons Why AMD Ryzen 4000 Will NOT Use 5nm TSMC Process

We have no idea whether the DigiTimes article exists, or was translated accurately, but we seriously doubt it will happen. Here’s why…

Reason #1 : AMD Unlikely To Delay Ryzen 4000 Desktop Launch To 2021

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su confirmed at CES 2020 that Zen 3 will debut in 2020, most likely around October to make it in time for the year-end holiday season.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the consumer launch of the Ryzen 4000 mobile processors, it is unlikely to delay the launch of the Ryzen 4000 desktop processors until early 2021.

Reason #2 : Desktop Ryzen Processors Don’t “Need” 5nm

While shrinking die size is generally a good thing, desktop processors like the upcoming 4th Gen Ryzen 4000 CPUs do not “need” a die shrink.

The focus will be on achieving high clock speeds at lower costs. That’s why the 3rd Gen Ryzen 3000 desktop processors use a chiplet design – the CPU dies are fabricated on 7nm, while the I/O die is fabricated on 12nm.

A matured and improved 7nm process would allow the 4th Gen Ryzen 4000 processors to deliver higher clock speeds at a much lower cost than a new 5nm process.

Reason #3 : Mobile Ryzen Processors Will Likely Be First To Use 5nm

AMD is strongest in the desktop and HEDT segment, outperforming Intel by sheer brute force, thanks to the higher number of cores in their desktop Ryzen and Threadripper processors.

They are weakest in the mobile market, with Intel mobile processors still controlling the vast majority of the market.

To seriously take on Intel in this critical segment, AMD would probably leverage the costly 5nm process to give their future Ryzen 5000 mobile processors a significant advantage in both performance and power consumption.

Reason #4 : 5nm Not That Advantageous Over Improved 7nm

While a 5nm transistor node sounds like it will offer 28.5% smaller transistors than a 7nm node, the difference in reality is much smaller.

That’s partly because the transistor sizes – 7nm, 5nm – are really marketing terms, not precise engineering definitions – and partly because of diminishing returns.

In any case, the TSMC 5nm process promises to offer 25% better performance over 7nm, but their improved 7nm process will offer at least 10% better performance over 7nm.

In other words, the net performance difference between the TSMC 5nm and improved TSMC 7nm (N7+) is just 13.6%. The cost of 5nm would, no doubt, be far more than improved 7nm.

Reason #5 : 5nm Yields Are Still Poor

Another thing to consider with a new transistor node is yield. This is the problem Intel had with their 10nm process technology – poor yield.

As of December 2019, the 5nm TSMC process has an average yield per wafer of ~80% with a tiny die size of 17.92 mm². That yield goes down to an abysmal 32% with a 100 mm² die size.

While no one knows how big the Zen 3 die will be, it is safe to say it will be closer to 100 mm². The Zen 2 die, for example, is 74 mm² in size.

Will AMD risk the success of their 4th Gen Ryzen 4000 desktop processors on TSMC hitting reasonable yields on 5 nm? We think not!

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The Kirin 950 & Kirin 650 Technology Report

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In our Kirin 950 and Kirin 650 technology report, you will be able to watch the full technical briefing and check out the performance of the Kirin 955 compared to the Exynos 8890. We will also share with you the presentation slides for your perusal. Enjoy!

Kirin 950 & Kirin 650 Technical Briefing

We were invited to an exclusive briefing on the unique features of the Kirin 950 and Kirin 650 family of processors (more accurately, System on a Chip or SOCs). The briefing was conducted by Mr. Zhou Chen, the Director of the Kirin Chipset Solution Planning, HiSilicon Wireless Terminal BU of Huawei.

Mr. Zhou Chen and his colleague also demonstrated the performance advantage of the Kirin 955-powered Huawei P9 Plus smartphone against the Exynos 8890-powered Samsung Galaxy S7 edge smartphone. Check it out :

[adrotate banner=”5″]

Key Features Of The Kirin 950 Family Of SoCs

Manufactured on the TSMC 16 nm FinFET+ process technology
Processor : 4 x ARM Cortex-A72 cores (2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz) + 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.8 GHz)
Graphics Processor : ARM Mali-T880 GPU (900 MHz)
Motion Co-Processor : i5 sensing co-processor
Memory Support : LPDDR3 or LPDDR4 SDRAM
Dual 14-bit ISPs (960 MP/s) with standalone DSP
HiFi audio DSP
4K video decoder (supports H.265)
5 Mode LTE Cat6 modem, with RF band of 450 MHz ~ 3.5 GHz

Key Features Of The Kirin 650 Family Of SoCs

Manufactured on the TSMC 16 nm FinFET+ process technology
Processor : 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (2.0 GHz) + 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.7 GHz)
Graphics Processor : ARM Mali-T830 MP2 GPU (900 MHz)
Motion Co-Processor : i5 sensing co-processor
Memory Support : LPDDR3 SDRAM
LTE Cat7 modem, with support for VoLTE and pseudo base station protection
Features SPLC intelligent voice enhancement technology

Next Page > Kirin 950 & Kirin 650 Briefing Slides

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Kirin 950 & Kirin 650 Briefing Slides

Huawei has kindly provided us with the slides for their Kirin 950 and Kirin 650 technical briefing, which we sharing with you here. They should allow you to have a clearer picture of the video presentation above.