Huawei Kirin 980 with double doped AI: the first processor engraved in 7 nm

Huawei has officially introduced its next SoC for high-end smartphones, the Kirin 980. Built on the platform of artificial intelligence and improved overall performance.

Kirin 980, Huawei Kirin 980 with double doped AI: the first processor engraved in 7 nm,
For several weeks we have been waiting for the official presentation of Huawei’s next mobile chip, the Kirin 980.
The new SoC of the Chinese giant is the first to be engraved in 7 nanometers and has been officially announced. It might also be the first to be released unless Apple is quicker to draw its iPhone.

In any case, there is more than one argument for this. In parallel to the reduction in engraving size, the manufacturer has succeeded in offering a 20% increase in performance and a 40% increase in efficiency compared to the previous Kirin 970, which is included in the models P20, P20 Pro, Honor View 10, Honor 10 and Mate 10 Pro. That is what Huawei promises.

More and more artificial intelligence

Aside from these optimizations, it is also the first to integrate cores from the ARM Cortex A76 architecture. There are four available, two of them clocked at 2.6 GHz for the highest demands and two others at 1.92 GHz for moderate performance requirements. Additionally, the SoC is equipped with the Cortex-A55 4-Core ARM at 1.8 GHz to provide the power needed for simpler tasks. In order to orchestrate all this, the CPU uses the Flexi scheduling system, which intelligently selects which core is to be activated when required.

The ARM Mali-G76 GPU has two NPU components to enhance artificial intelligence. As a reminder: The Kirin 970 had to be content with a single neural processor, which is especially dedicated to image recognition.

Kirin over Qualcomm?

The other important point is that the Kirin 980 could have better energy management than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845. Huawei announces 30% more!
Remember that the 845, engraved in 10 nanometers, came on the market at the beginning of the year and has proven itself on a good part of the Android flagships.

Finally, the connection speed is impressive….. on paper. With the Hi1103 chip, the Wi-Fi connection should reach up to 1732 Mbps. The Category 21 4G LTE modem has a download rate of 1.4 Gbps.

The name Kirin 980 came yesterday with the Magic 2 teasing from Honor. Contrary to what we thought, it’s not the top of the line, the Mate 20 Pro, that will benefit first, but Honor. We’ll wait and see. The Mate series will be launched next October.