Huawei's next-gen CPU could rival Apple's current best — Kirin CPU with Taishan V130 cores rumored to match Apple M3 performance

News
By published

Another ambitious project of a blacklisted company

HiSilicon
(Image credit: HiSilicon)

According to a leak from a Weibo user, Huawei's chip development unit is working on a next-generation Kirin processor for PCs in addition to releasing the HiSilicon Kirin 9010 smartphone application processor. That part will feature the company's next-generation general-purpose cores and a revamped GPU. Huawei reportedly hopes the new Kirin will compete against Apple's M3 in multi-thread workloads. 

Huawei's upcoming HiSilicon Kirin processor is projected to feature eight general-purpose Arm cores, including four next-generation high-performance Taishan V130 cores (the Kirin 9000s uses Taishan V120 cores) and four energy-efficient cores. The system-on-chip is expected to integrate the company's next-generation Mailiang 920 GPU with 10 clusters, bringing a vast performance uplift compared to the Kirin 9000s, which features a quad-cluster Mailiang 910 GPU.

The leak claims that Huawei's HiSilicon could release higher-performance Kirin SoCs in "Pro" and "Max" configurations, similar to Apple, with more general-purpose cores, revamped GPU, and a more comprehensive memory interface.

 The only question is whether Huawei's manufacturing partner SMIC will have enough leading-edge production capacity to make all the chips that Huawei needs.

See more CPUs News
TOPICS
Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • peachpuff
    Reply
  • frogr
    Do you realy believe that SMIC's 7 nm node can match the power- performance curve of TSMC's 3 nm node? Or perhaps their microprocessor design is that much better than Apple's M3 design.
    Reply
  • aetherwing
    frogr said:
    Do you realy believe that SMIC's 7 nm node can match the power- performance curve of TSMC's 3 nm node? Or perhaps their microprocessor design is that much better than Apple's M3 design.
    TBF, the original source didnt mention about power efficiency. and there are some other rumors implying that 5nm node is well under way. anyway, time will tell.
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    frogr said:
    Do you realy believe that SMIC's 7 nm node can match the power- performance curve of TSMC's 3 nm node? Or perhaps their microprocessor design is that much better than Apple's M3 design.
    Nope, in fact it’s not even as good as TSMC N7, I read somewhere that it’s equivalent to TSMC N12
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    aetherwing said:
    TBF, the original source didnt mention about power efficiency. and there are some other rumors implying that 5nm node is well under way. anyway, time will tell.
    TBF, considering the Kirin 9000 saw significant performance regression when switching from TSMC to SMIC, I doubt SMIC 5nm will level the playing field.
    Reply
  • aetherwing
    The Historical Fidelity said:
    TBF, considering the Kirin 9000 saw significant performance regression when switching from TSMC to SMIC, I doubt SMIC 5nm will level the playing field.
    significant performance regression? i am sure if you are trolling or not, but they have almost same performance in test runs and benchmarks
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    aetherwing said:
    significant performance regression? i am sure if you are trolling or not, but they have almost same performance in test runs and benchmarks
    Yes, the kirin 9000 (SMIC) has a 25% lower CPU and iGPU clock frequency vs kirin 9000 (TSMC) while using more electricity. All the benchmarks by reputable reviews show this performance regression.
    Reply
  • Jahmalachi
    The Historical Fidelity said:
    Nope, in fact it’s not even as good as TSMC N7, I read somewhere that it’s equivalent to TSMC N12
    Where you get that from? I swear any news is taken as fact as long as it’s anti-china
    The Historical Fidelity said:
    Yes, the kirin 9000 (SMIC) has a 25% lower CPU and iGPU clock frequency vs kirin 9000 (TSMC) while using more electricity. All the benchmarks by reputable reviews show this performance regression.
    kirin 9000 tsmc 5nm vs Kirin 9000s smic 7nm why are you surprised it’s less efficient?
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    Jahmalachi said:
    Where you get that from? I swear any news is taken as fact as long as it’s anti-china

    kirin 9000 tsmc 5nm vs Kirin 9000s smic 7nm why are you surprised it’s less efficient?
    SMIC 7nm is compared to TSMC N12 due to the frequency-power curve. If it takes more power to produce 25% slower clock rates, that yields a frequency-power curve that is worse than TSMC N7 and on par with TSMC N12.

    P.S. I see you are new to these forums so I will kindly inform you to remain civil when engaging other members.
    Reply
  • gg83
    aetherwing said:
    significant performance regression? i am sure if you are trolling or not, but they have almost same performance in test runs and benchmarks
    I'd like a trustworthy source for that statement. Only benchmarks prove nothing about actual performance.
    Reply