Mobile Phone News

TSMC gets license allowing it to ship chips to Huawei; however, there is a major caveat

by
Zaylee Amalia
10/10/2020

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In May 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Chinese manufacturer Huawei to its list of institutions for security purposes. This prevents Huawei from accessing its U.S. supply chain to purchase software and hardware. Exactly one year later, Huawei tightened its grip by requiring any factory that uses US-based technology to obtain a license before shipping more goods to Huawei.

TSMC is allowed to ship chips to Huawei; There is a key caveat

This is a big blow to Huawei as the 5nm milk 9000 chips manufactured by TSMC are no longer available. The manufacturer calculated to use the cut.Edge The Mate 40 family is part of its flagship phone series for the year. The chip must be powered by the flexible Mate X2, which is also found in the base locations used in Huawei’s 5G networking devices. Richard You, head of consumer business at Huawei, says the Kirin 9000 could be the company’s ultimate flagship chip.

The 5nm Kirin 9000 SoC replaces the 7nm Kirin 990

According to Sina.com, TSMC received a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Friday through a knowledgeable source to the Associated Press, which allows the chips to be shipped. Huawei, but with some caveats. Chips that Huawei can supply to the world’s largest independent foundation must be manufactured using the most “mature” process nodes. Unfortunately, these old process nodes are of no use when running mobile phones today.

Mature process nodes are believed to include 28nm and above. Advanced process nodes not reported to be licensed to TSMC include 16nm, 10nm, 7nm and the latest 5nm nodes. So in other words, in terms of its phones and networking devices, this license does not really help Huawei. AMD and Intel have also been authorized to work with Huawei. But without the ability to have 9000 chips of 5nm of milk in inventory, things would be much better for the manufacturer.

Huawei ordered 15 million Kirin 9000 SoC from TSMC but managed to get only 8.8 million from these chips. This gives the company an inventory of about six months before the required and most powerful chip expires. Sources say the Commerce Department does not expect Huawei to completely block the supply of semiconductors. But a Huawei company should find out about the current ban that prevents them from getting high-performance chips.

In May, TSMC It is reported that it will start operations in the United States (Arizona, to be precise) in 2023. The facility produces 5nm chips and is now state-of-the-art but will be pushed aside for 3nm chips by 2023. . Some conspiracy theorists believe that the TSMC agreed to build a factory in the United States to please President Donald Trump, and that the TSMC in return sought one sponsorship for it – to allow it to supply Huawei chips. But Keith Crouch, secretary of state for the Department of Economic Development, Energy and the Environment, has previously publicly stated that the United States has not given such a guarantee to TSMC.

Revenue for the third quarter was 84.488 billion yuan (US $ 73.9 million), up 14.7 percent year-on-year and up 21.65 percent year-on-year. That figure set a new single-quarter record in the fourth quarter of last year.

Huawei Brass can hope that a new administration will win the upcoming U.S. election and reverse the orders that have plagued Huawei today. But with less than 30 days to go before the election, even a big change will not happen immediately, and Huawei will not be able to get back to its 5nm milk chip.

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