TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 7-nanometer chips used for the new Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone are at the limit of China’s technological knowhow, with a breakthrough unlikely in the near future, reports said Tuesday (Sept. 5).
The new phone from Huawei Technologies is seen as including the most advanced semiconductors China is able to produce. However, its impact will likely only last for two years, with further breakthroughs not on the cards, Radio Free Asia (RFA) quoted technology experts from Taiwan as saying.
As to which company had made the 5G Kirin chips for the new Huawei phone, speculation centered on Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), said Ray Yang (楊瑞臨) of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). The manufacture of the new semiconductors is likely to be using technology from ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands, he added.
If the new phone from Huawei is a domestic success, it could cut into the business of chipmakers Qualcomm and MediaTek Inc., while exports would affect Apple and Samsung, Yang said. However, success for the Mate 60 Pro may only be a short-lived phenomenon, as China’s semiconductor sector is unlikely to make any breakthroughs within the next two years amid United States sanctions, he told RFA.
In the near future, companies outside China will move on to 5nm and 3nm technology, which China would be unable to follow, according to the ITRI expert.