Huawei will take root in semiconductors in all directions
“Unfortunately, we only did the design of the chip, we didn’t do the manufacturing of the chip.” Said, Yu Chengdong “This is really a very big loss, a great pity!”
Tweet
On August 7, at the China Information Technology 100 Society 2020 Summit, Huawei Consumer Business CEO Yu Chengdong said in his keynote speech that the Mate 40, which will go on sale this fall, will be equipped with the Kirin 9000, which may be the extinct version of Huawei’s high-end chip.
Yu Chengdong said that the Huawei Mate 40 is equipped with our new-generation Kirin 9000 chip, which will have more powerful 5G capabilities, more powerful AI processing, and more powerful CPU and GPU.
But unfortunately, in the second round of sanctions in the United States, we chip production, only accepted orders until May 15, to September 15 production is cut off. So this year could be the extinct, last generation of our Huawei Kirin high-end chips.
Because China’s semiconductor manufacturing process manufacturing capacity has not yet come up, the second round of U.S. sanctions is, as long as the semiconductor production process, even if they use of any little American technology, can not give Huawei to produce.
Unfortunately, the first one is that we have been exploring in the chip field, and Huawei has been pioneering for more than a decade in the past, from seriously backward, to a bit behind, to finally catching up, to leading, to now being blocked again.
We invested a very huge investment in research and development, also went through a very difficult process, but unfortunately, we are in the semiconductor manufacturing, Huawei in the field of heavy asset investment type, this capital-intensive industry, Huawei did not participate, we only did the design of the chip, but did not engage in the manufacture of chips, is a very big loss to us.
“We have invested in huge research and development, but unfortunately in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, Huawei is not involved. We only do chip design, no chip manufacturing, a lot of our very powerful chips are no longer available to manufacture, we say to solve these problems, we need technological innovation and technology.”
And to solve this problem, Yu said that in terms of semiconductors, Huawei will be rooted in all aspects, breaking through the basic research and precision manufacturing of physics and materials science. In terms of terminal devices, such as display modules, camera modules, and 5G devices, Huawei is vigorously increasing investment in materials and core technologies to achieve a close linkage of new materials + new processes and break through the bottlenecks that limit innovation.
Yu Chengdong said: “Now we are moving from the second generation semiconductor into the third generation semiconductor era, hoping to achieve leadership in a new era. Huawei is investing in multiple devices in the terminal. Huawei has also driven the growth of several Chinese enterprise companies, including RF and so on to leap high-end manufacturing.”
However, the semiconductor industry chain is very long, not one or two companies can do the whole thing. Yu Chengdong called on the semiconductor industry chain partners should be all-around rooted, starting from the root technology to create a new ecology.
In the “root technology”, Huawei suggested that the industry focuses on EDA and IP areas, key algorithms, and design capabilities. There are also areas of production equipment and materials including 12-inch wafers, photomasks, EUV light sources, immersion systems, lenses, and so on.
In the design and manufacturing segment, the focus is on IC design capabilities as well as IC manufacturing and IC packaging capabilities. Among them, IDM covers the design and manufacturing process integration of RF, power, analog, memory, sensor, and other devices.
HongMeng OS Position in Future
In addition to chip manufacturing limitations, Huawei is also limited in its software systems and cannot use Google’s GMS services. In response, Huawei launched the Hong Meng operating system and HMS (Huawei Mobile Service) mobile service last year.
It is understood that the HMS ecosystem has achieved rapid growth globally, with Huawei terminals reaching 700 million monthly active users worldwide, Huawei’s registered developers reaching 1.6 million worldwide, and the number of applications connected to HMS Core exceeding 81,000 worldwide.
Yu Chengdong also said: “In terms of HMS, last year, the U.S. chips, mobile phone mobile services do not give Huawei to use, Huawei can only solve the chip and ecological problems themselves, the development of HMS, efforts to break through the U.S. blockade, and now every month, every week, every day, the ecological experience is improving.”
As for HongMeng OS, Yu Chengdong said that Huawei’s previous smart screen products have begun to carry. Besides, Yu also revealed that this year, Huawei’s smartwatch products will also be equipped with Hong Meng OS, and all of Huawei’s IoT products in the future, including PCs, tablets, and even mobile phones may adopt HongMeng OS (Harmony OS).
At present, HongMeng open-source, Huawei also initiated the construction of independent OS ecology. Yu Chengdong said, “HongMeng OS will become an operating system that can be used worldwide in the future.”
For this year’s expected mobile phone sales, Yu Chengdong said, due to the second round of U.S. sanctions, making Huawei chip reserves are insufficient, Huawei’s annual mobile phone sales are expected to be lower than the same period last year (last year, Huawei mobile phone sales of 240 million units).
Current situation of Huawei may make weak Huawei for now; But in future this situations may make Huawei more powerful and more self dependent, stronger than ever.