Huawei Technologies Co.’s latest laptops are powered by chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), a disassembly of the devices revealed, dashing talk of new Chinese technological advancements.
The Qingyun L540 notebook is equipped with a 5-nanometer chip made by a Taiwanese company in 2020, when U.S. sanctions cut off Huawei’s access to the chipmaker, according to Bloomberg News. It was discovered by research firm TechInsights after it was dismantled. This refutes speculation that Huawei’s chip manufacturing partner in mainland China, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), may have made a major leap forward in manufacturing technology.
Last August, Huawei launched a smartphone equipped with a 7nm processor made by Shanghai-based SMIC, causing a stir in the United States and China. A teardown by Canada-based Bloomberg News research found the Mate 60 Pro’s chip to be just a few years behind the cutting edge, a feat that should have been prevented by U.S. trade restrictions. The revelations sparked celebrations across China’s technology industry and a debate in the United States about the effectiveness of sanctions.
Huawei expects sales to increase 9% in 2023 due to return of Mate 60 Pro 5G
Huawei expects sales to increase 9% in 2023 due to return of Mate 60 Pro 5G
In the latest teardown, TechInsights discovered TSMC’s 5nm Kirin 9006C processor. The processor was assembled and packaged around the third quarter of 2020. Industry experts had previously speculated that SMIC may have achieved that milestone by developing a workaround to U.S. sanctions. It marked the second technical victory in as many months for the Chinese national champion.
Representatives for Huawei and TSMC did not comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.
The advances distilled into the 2023 Mate 60 smartphone strengthen Huawei’s role as a standard-bearer for China’s efforts to break away from Western technology and create domestic alternatives. Chinese consumers buying smartphones in the final quarter helped the company regain its symbolically important $100 billion revenue goal, eroding Apple’s iPhone dominance in the process.
A move into 5nm territory would represent a major leap forward for the Shenzhen conglomerate, bringing it closer to the most advanced processes currently in use, mostly centered around the 3nm node. Before TSMC cut ties with Huawei, it supplied the company with as many as 5nm advanced chips.
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Huawei has been stockpiling critical semiconductors since the U.S. began cutting off access to parts and equipment globally, but it’s unclear how Huawei was able to source the three-year-old processors. . Huawei has been on Washington’s Entity List since 2019, but it wasn’t until the beginning of 2020 that TSMC suspended orders from Huawei to comply with tightened U.S. trade regulations.
Huawei has since spent billions of dollars researching and stockpiling chips over the past few years, building a domestic network of suppliers and manufacturing partners, in some cases with government support.
The L540 is the latest in a series of laptops that Huawei launched around 2016, when the networking leader had ambitions to expand and expand its offerings into mobile and computing devices.
Its emergence coincides with growing demands by the Chinese government to replace foreign technology in sensitive environments, from mandatory iPhone bans in the workplace to replacements with Dell and HP computers.
Some online retailers touted this new laptop as specifically designed to comply with China’s recent strict requirements for data security across sensitive government agencies. Huawei’s official website emphasizes the device’s security features, but does not go into details.