As one of the world’s largest foundries for the production of 5nm chips, TSMC already plans to mass produce 5nm chips in the first half of this year.
Huawei Mate 40 with Kirin 1020 will see its performance increase by 50%
However, there will be no peak period for large-scale deliveries of 5nm chips until the third quarter of 2020. The iPhone 12 and Huawei Mate 40 series are also expected to be the first mobile phones with 5n chips. nm.
So after the successful 7nm manufacturing process, the 5nm will be yet another great business for TSMC. Currently, there are two 5nm process technologies: N5 and N5P. Compared to the old 7nm manufacturing process, the N5 improves performance by 15%, energy consumption by 30% and crystal density by 80%. During this time, the N5P offers 7% more performance than the N5 and the energy consumption still decreases by around 15%. According to industry experts, the 5nm N5 version will be mass produced this year, while the N5P variant will be mass produced in 2021.
At present, R&D spending to bring 5nm processing chips has exceeded US $ 500 million; with only Huawei and Apple who will actually use the technology. It is indeed reported that Huawei will launch two 5nm chips this year and one of them will be part of the Kirin series for mobile phones. As for the name, the successor to the Kirin 990 should be called Kirin 1020.
Finally, it has been reported in China that the Kirin 1020 is 50% more powerful than the Kirin 990; with processor architecture upgraded from Cortex A76 to Cortex A78. Which means Huawei will completely skip the Cortex A77 currently on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. Of course, the Kirin 1020 will also come with a built-in 5G modem.
What do you think of Huawei and its 5nm chip? Are you excited about the new technology? Let us know in the comments section below!