Kirin 985 and Kirin 990 Have Completed The Design But Huawei is Facing a Serious Challenge

Under the pressure of the US government, many US and British companies in Japan will be shut down for Huawei. As the key to Huawei’s competitiveness, the Kirin chip will be shut down for Huawei’s attention at the end of last month. Now, there is news that the EDA design company will stop providing updates to Hisilicon under the pressure of the US government. It will be a very serious challenge for Kirin. The good news is that Kirin 985 and Kirin 990 have completed the design.

Many readers will think that because Huawei has its own chip division HiSilicon, manufacturing custom chips will be a breeze. Unfortunately, the process of chip design is very complex and requires multiple components. Parallel, now the entire technology industry is deeply intertwined, which is why Huawei, which is in trouble, may find it difficult to achieve the goal of chip design without US suppliers.

A good example, it is reported that an EDA tool provider has stopped providing updates to Huawei to meet the requirements of the US government, which may have greatly hindered the operation of HiSilicon. We know that HiSilicon’s Kirin chips are available to Huawei mobile phone use. However, Huawei may feel that the change may take some time because a report claims that Chinese chip giant Hess has completed the design of its upcoming Kirin 985 and Kirin 990.

Huawei can continue to manufacture existing 5G modems, but without the support of some key companies, it may become difficult in the future.

According to the Nikkei report, two industry insiders who informed the news said that Synopsys, a company that provides chip automation design tools (EDA) in California, will no longer provide software updates to Huawei HiSilicon, and the company also suspends sales to Chinese companies. Intellectual property. This decision is not expected to affect the production of the upcoming Kirin 985 and Kirin 990 chipsets, as their design is clearly complete.

Earlier, it was reported that TSMC has begun mass production of the 7nm+ process of Kirin 985, and since the design of the Kirin 990 SoC, the lack of software updates will not be an obstacle to these two chips. However, if key tool providers do not change their decision, then Huawei will face huge challenges in designing chips in the future.

In addition to Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems (also a US company) can provide Huawei with all the software tools needed to design a chipset. Without the latest software, it is impossible for Chinese giants to design new chips. Software updates are an integral part of the overall chip process, with an update every week and keeping pace with chip makers.

If it is not updated, the design process will be very difficult. Although Huawei can use piracy, TSMC and other chip makers are likely to be reluctant to adopt this approach. Other smaller EDA tool vendors simply cannot provide Huawei with the required software features, and because these tools are an integral part of the chip design and production process, the embargo may hit Huawei’s chip development goals and become a leader. 5G equipment manufacturer’s plan.

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The only available option at the moment is to use existing chip designs, which will make the company lose its advantage over other suppliers. We will have to wait to see if the negotiations between China and the United States can be resolved peacefully, or whether Huawei must move forward to design its own operating system.