The Emergence of Huawei's Kirin 9000S: A Tectonic Shift in the Global Semiconductor Landscape

whitecapstromgard@sh.itjust.works to Technology@lemmy.world – 7 points –
The Emergence of Huawei's Kirin 9000S: A Tectonic Shift in the Global Semiconductor Landscape
zenanalyst.substack.com
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Tectonic shift? 7nm chips are older models, they are not new.

Yes and no. There were plenty of commentators claiming that US sanctions were a death blow to the Chinese chip industry, who would not be able to go below 10 nm themselves, etc. This was one of the selling points for the sanctions.

You can find plenty of commentators saying anything in the modern world. That is not evidence of credibility, unless you're in a church or something.

I would challenge anyone to said that to explain how exactly stopping trade would prevent Chinese companies from improving their chips. Is it assumed they are incapable of improvement?

I agree, but the US government thinks otherwise, and apparently the Commerce Department is now opening an investigation into how the Chinese could possibly have made a 7 nm chip. Though it's not clear what else they can do; they've already completely blacklisted Huawei by this point, yet somehow it still lives.

Don't believe everything you hear. I can think of no compelling arguments for why the Chinese cannot do research that remains 10 years behind the Taiwanese.

...in a church?

If everyone within a church is saying something is true, you will have a very hard time convincing them otherwise, their perceived credibility is too high. In other environments, you could attempt to find some kind of proof or evidence. Without faith to get in the way, proof can sometimes change people's minds when they are wrong.

Ah, gotcha. Just read the Wikipedia article on Copernicus earlier and was thinking about s lot of this stuff.

The laptop I'm writing this from uses 10nm technology.

Exactly. If some random consumer-grade laptop has a 10nm in it, a competitor being able to make 7nm sometime soon should probably be expected.

Intel 10nm is comparable to TSMC 7nm.

The numbers sound exact, but they aren't much more than marketing terms nowadays.

SMIC used ASML lithography machines to produce those chips. Thry can't buy more of them and can't get spare parts. It will be more tectonic when China can produce such lithography machines, but I wouldn't hold my breath.