Apple’s M-series of chipsets was expected to receive another competitor in the form of Huawei’s Kirin PC chip in May or June, but the custom silicon’s launch did not materialize. We have now learned through a separate rumor that the chip in question has been delayed, with its new release slated for the first quarter of 2025.
No reason was provided for the delay of Huawei’s Kirin PC Chip, but it could be related to efficiency issues as a result of relying on an older manufacturing process
A tipster on Weibo with the handle @BeijingDigitalMaster reveals that the Kirin PC Chip has been delayed to Q1 2025, with the information spotted by Huawei Central. Ever since the former Chinese giant introduced the Kirin 9000S last year, the company followed it up with the Kirin 9010 and a multitude of variants found in a slew of smartphone and tablet models. In short, it is a sure sign that Huawei aims to reduce dependency on foreign entities and rely on its local supply chain to mass produce chipsets.
Unfortunately, while we can respect Huawei’s lofty ambitions of climbing to the top of the mountain once more, various hurdles impede its progress, starting with the equipment used to mass produce the rumored Kirin PC Chip. Given that the U.S. has barred ASML from supplying Huawei and other Chinese firms with cutting-edge EUV machinery, reliance on previous-generation DUV equipment has increased exponentially.
SMIC, China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, was previously reported to have successfully developed its 5nm technology on the existing DUV machinery, but increased wafer costs and incredibly low yields means that it will be exceptionally costly for Huawei to employ this technology to mass produce the Kirin PC Chip. It is possible that we witness some optimizations taking place to improve yields and lower production costs, which might be the reason for the delay.
After all, it makes little sense if the Kirin PC Chip is too expensive to produce, but according to its early alleged performance results, the chipset’s Taishan V130 architecture made it possible to achieve a multi-core performance close to the M3. The power consumption metrics were not shared during this time, but we should learn more about the chip in the coming months, so stay tuned.
