Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract manufacturer of custom chipsets and processor cores, has officially announced the beginning of mass production of its new generation, 7nm+ fabrication process, presently designed in particular for the Apple A13 and Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 985 chipsets.
The top-notch Kirin 985 chipset is expected to be present in Huawei's future flagship, the Huawei Mate 30. Meanwhile, it is no surprise that Apple will upgrade to the A13 SoC with with its 2019 iPhones. Apple is also known for customising the SoC design to suit its own software integration, which has given it considerable performance and power benefits, since forever. The new, 7nm+ fabrication process uses the new age EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography, which is allowing TSMC to further optimise the already-advanced 7nm manufacturing process.
The announcement comes days after TSMC said it would continue delivering critical semiconductors to Huawei Technologies, even as chip designer ARM severed ties with the global electronics and infrastructure giant. Other firms, which do not violate US restrictions imposed against Huawei, and will continue shipping products to it, include Panasonic and the Chinese Lenovo Group.
On May 15, US President Donald Trump effectively banned Huawei with a national security order. The US publicly asked its allies to steer clear of using Huawei products over concerns that the equipment could be used by the Chinese government to obtain private information. The company has since responded by accusing the USA of falsification of claims without possessing any hard truths about the matter, and has vouched to continue the upward curve of its business, despite the difficult times.
Huawei was on a steady upsurge in the smartphone industry until this recent setback. While it was previously estimated to have the potential to usurp Samsung's throne and become the largest smartphone vendor in the world, analysts and market researchers now expect the company to suffer a heavy fall in numbers, given its stay on the usage of Android.
Comments
0 comment