#HiSiliconKirinchipsets

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Key features of Huawei and Honor phones Review

As known, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. was founded in 1987 by a former engineer of the People's Liberation Army of China. Today, its share reaches 13% of global smartphone sales, second only to Samsung (19%). For example, in 2018, its revenue reached $ 107 billion, providing a profit of about $ 8.8 billion. A significant share of the company's products is sold under the Honor brand, which also belongs to Huawei. In fact, the Honor brand can be positioned as a separate series of devices with its own name. Initially, Huawei created it for the mid-budget segment of smartphones, laptops, etc, oriented primarily to the younger generation. But the strategy of selling Honor models via the Internet, including its own websites and third-party online stores, allowed the company to further reduce prices. As a result, its popularity has increased dramatically. Today, there is even a Honor Club that provides additional discounts to its members. As a consequence, some perceive Honor as a separate company. But in fact, Honor is just a very successful Huawei series.

Sanctions

Of course, the confrontation with the US government has made significant adjustments to the rapid development of the company. As known, spring 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump introduced an emergency regime to protect the country's communication networks, blacklisting Huawei. Of course, this decision significantly complicated the sale of Huawei products in America. Additionally, from May 20, 2019, Google stopped working with Huawei, limiting its access to Android services. Then, on May 22, the British ARM company broke off cooperation with Huawei, despite losses due to the production of Kirin chipsets. Then, on May 22, the British ARM company broke off cooperation with Huawei, despite the loss due to Kirin chipsets. But in July, during the G20 summit, U.S. President Donald Trump unexpectedly made a statement about the possible lifting of some bans on cooperation between US companies and Huawei. Nevertheless, even at the end of 2019, the prospects for the further development of this situation remain very uncertain. On the one hand, the US Congress allocated $ 1 billion to small telecommunications operators to replace Huawei and ZTE equipment. In addition, Google, Intel and Panasonic completely suspended their cooperation with Huawei. But the US Department of Commerce licensed Microsoft to sell the software to this Chinese company. Of course, any trade war sooner or later ends with a reasonable compromise agreement. Probably, this conflict will also be resolved in the near future without fatal consequences for the parties. However, throughout the second half of 2019, the Chinese giant was intensively preparing for possible complications. In particular, Huawei unexpectedly introduced its own Harmony OS (HongMengOS or OakOS), which can become a competitor to Android OS, and several great HiSilicon Kirin chipsets, including Kirin 810, 990 and 990 5G, whose specs are quite comparable with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.

Key Features

Probably, a modern phone can be considered one of the most technically sophisticated devices. In fact, today it combines the functions of a phone, a pocket PC, a high-quality camera and a multimedia center. For example, some companies have been offering Projector Mobile Phones with a projector function, including the very popular Blackview MAX 1 Projector Mobile Phone. As a consequence, the modern smartphone uses complex components, including OS, chipset, Smartphone Storage, camera, display, etc. Their specs directly affect the functionality and quality of the model and, accordingly, smartphone choice. At IFA 2019, the company introduced EMUI 10 (Emotion UI) for Android 10. But further escalation of the conflict could accelerate the full implementation of Harmony OS instead of Android. Todey the company sees Harmony OS as “Plan B," planning to use the new OS only in the Chinese market. In addition, Huawei equips the phones with its own HiSilicon Kirin chipsets, which today quite successfully compete even with Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Camera and display

In recent years, the company places the Leica logo next to the cameras of its flagships, advertising its cooperation with the famous German manufacturer. Of course, Leica does not produce cameras for Huawei. Formally, their cooperation includes the experience exchange in the development of optics and software, including the optical transmission, color rendering, detailing, image post-processing with AI methods, etc. But in fact, Leica strictly controls and, if necessary, helps to create high-quality cameras in exchange for the right to use their logo. As a result, almost all experts note a sharp increase in the quality of cameras in Huawei models. As known, Huawei uses in their phones AMOLED and IPS matrices from various companies, including Foxconn, Tianma, LG, etc. For example, the very expensive Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS (2018) uses a gorgeous 6.0-inch LG OLED screen with 2880 x 1440 (Quad HD +) resolution, 538 ppi pixel density and 90,000: 1 contrast.

The lineup

Huawei uses a fairly popular strategy, annually offering a huge number of models in different price segments. A few years ago, Samsung and LG used a similar tactic. For example, in 2014 Samsung introduced 56 new models, and LG - 41 new smartphones. But other companies, including Apple or Google, prefer a small assortment of new models. Of course, a huge range allows the company to actively experiment with components in search of the optimal configuration. For example, many Best Sellers have only average specs, but a good price / quality ratio due to the successful configuration has ensured them marketing success. But the cost of any product consists of the costs of development and design, production, logistics, advertising, etc. Further support also requires additional costs for updating the OS, production of components for repair, etc. As a result, a large number of models almost always reduce profits due to rising costs. Therefore, in recent years, many leaders are reducing their range. But Huawei does not change its tactics. Apparently, financial power allows the Chinese giant to ignore this aspect. As a result, today the market simultaneously offers dozens of Huawei models with almost the same specs and price. Of course, this factor expands the range, but often complicates the phone choice. In fairness, the company does not very strictly follow the traditional division of its products into price segments. In 2019 company introduced several very interesting innovative phones, including the Nova 5, 5i and 5 Pro, P30 Lite, P30 and P30 Pro, Mate X and Mate 30 Pro, Honor 10i, 20, 20 Pro and View 20.

Conclusion

Traditionally, Huawei's list of pros includes flexible pricing policy and a huge assortment. But in recent years, the Chinese giant has made several breakthroughs. Firstly, in collaboration with the famous German Leica Camera AG, the company radically improved the quality of the cameras of its smartphones, taking a leading position in the segment of camera phones. Second, the company has radically improved its HiSilicon Kirin chipsets, which today successfully compete even with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus. Thirdly, the company introduced new Harmony OS, which many experts consider very promising. Moreover, Honor and Huawei smartphones took the first two places in the research of Harris Interactive. This company analyzed 130,050 cases of after-sales appeals of customers of a large European Darty retail network. To the surprise of many, Chinese models were recognized as the most reliable. iPhone took only third place. Perhaps the Chinese manufacturer for the first time ahead of traditional leaders in this indicator. The combination of these factors allows the Chinese company to be optimistic about the future, despite their problems with sanctions. This video offers Samsung Galaxy A70 vs Honor View 20 SpeedTest. Read the full article

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HiSilicon Kirin SoC in Huawei and Honor smartphones Review

Of course, the chipset is one of the main components of a modern smartphone, affecting its performance. Therefore, many choose a smartphone taking into account the capabilities of chipset. Accordingly, all smartphone manufacturers pay great attention to this aspect. As known, System-on-a-Chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of electronic system. Typically, a SoC contains one or more DSP (Digital Signal Processing) cores. But almost all modern smartphones use multiprocessor systems (MPSoC). In addition, a modern SoC often includes a GPU, memory controller, GSM, 3G and 4G LTE modules, fragments of GPS, USB, NFC, Bluetooth, and cameras. The list of leaders in SoC-platforms segment includes the American Qualcomm Snapdragon (Qualcomm Inc), Nvidia Tegra (NVIDIA Corporation), TI OMAP (Texas Instruments), Chinese MediaTek (MediaTek Inc). In addition, some large companies are developing their own chipsets. For example, this list includes ST-Ericsson NovaThor (Sony), Samsung Exynos (Samsung), Apple Ax (iPhone, Apple Inc), Kirin (Huawei Honor, HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd). As known, in 1991, Huawei formed the HiSilicon Technologies division. In 2004, it became an independent company and began to create its own RISC processor based on a license from the British ARM. Today, HiSilicon Technologies Co Ltd is developing high-performance mobile processors, successfully competing even with Qualcomm Snapdragon. The list of their latest chipsets of 2018 and 2019 includes the Kirin 970, 980, 990, 990 5G and Kirin 810.

HiSilicon Kirin 970

In Berlin at IFA 2017, Huawei introduced the flagship single-crystal HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset. According to the company, Kirin 970 is the first Neural Processing Unit (NPU) or AI accelerator. As known, NPUs use the cluster asynchronous architecture developed at Cornell University. Unlike traditional computing architectures, this highly specialized logic is designed to create different types of artificial neural networks. Usually, each core contains a task scheduler, its own memory such as SRAM and a router for communication with other kernels. One chip can contain several thousand cores. The manufacture of a single-chip Kirin 970 system uses 10nm technology with the placement of 5.5 billion transistors in an area of about a square centimeter. The configuration of this SoC includes four ARM Cortex-A73 cores (2.4 GHz) and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.8 GHz), combined according to the standard big.LITTLE scheme. Additionally, the Kirin 970 for the first time contains the 12-core Mali G72MP12 GPU (ARM GPU). Moreover, the built-in LTE Advanced Pro (4.5G) modem supports up to 1.2 Gb/s, and a dual DSP provides motion capture, face detection, four-level hybrid autofocus and improved shooting of moving objects even in low light. Additionally, Kirin 970 supports LPPDR 4X RAM (1883 MHz) and UFS 2.1, a 4K video codec, HDR10, a separate Security Engine with TEE and inSE support, an i7 sensor, and HiFi sound.

HiSilicon Kirin 980

A year later, at IFA 2018, Huawei introduced the new flagship Kirin 980. Kirin 980 became the first Huawei 7nm chipset. As known, it directly affects the energy consumption and, accordingly, the heating the processor during operation. SoC Kirin 980 has 6.9 billion transistors, which is 1.6 times more compared to Kirin 970. Its eight cores are divided into three clusters, including two Cortex-A76 with a frequency of 2.6 GHz, two Cortex-A76 with a frequency of 1.92 GHz and four Cortex-A55 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz. In addition, it uses the integrated GPU Mali-G76 MP10. According to the company, the performance increase of Kirin 980 vs 970 for the CPU reaches 58-75%, GPU - 46% with an increase in energy efficiency by 178%. In addition, the company doubled the number of NPU units to accelerate AI apps. In fact, the neuromorphic Huawei processor has become dual-core, capable of recognizing up to 4,500 images per minute. Additionally, the Kirin 980 uses the fourth generation ISP (image signal processor). The new SoC debuted in the flagship Mate 20 и Mate 20 Pro smartphones of 2018.

Kirin 810

In 2019, the company continued to improve its chipsets, introducing Kirin 810, 990 and 990 5G. In summer, the company introduced the new 7nm 8-core Kirin 810 with two ARM Cortex-A76 clocked up to 2.27 GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 clocked up to 1.88 GHz. It also has an ARM Mali-G52 MP6 GPU and an AI task processing unit based on the new Huawei DaVinci architecture, which reduces energy consumption. Key Features: - 7nm technology; - the high quality of the built-in modems provides a very stable connection; - the improved Mali-G52 MP6 GPU significantly improves gaming performance, outperforming even the Adreno 618 (Qualcomm Snapdragon) in the GFXBench test; - the neural processor module on the Huawei DaVinci architecture in combination with the Huawei HiAi 2.0 platform surpasses even the Snapdragon 855 and Kirin 980 in the performance test for AI tasks.

Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G

At IFA 2019, the company introduced the new flagship Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G. This new 7nm SoC for the first time includes a 5G modem with support for NSA and SA networks. In addition, engineers were able to place 10.3 billion transistors on it due to the use of innovative EUV lithography, which forms the elements of electronic microcircuits smaller than 45 nm. Additionally, the new chipset contains a neuromorphic coprocessor with Da Vinchi architecture and a 16-core graphics core. Advanced adaptive receiver can work on any 5G NR (New Radio) networks, including Non-Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA). Today, companies are building 5G mainly to improve mobile broadband (eMBB) by increasing the speed of data transmission in the network. Today, it uses the 4G LTE infrastructure, operating in the millimeter range. Such networks are called non-autonomous. But this is only the first stage of 5G implementation. The next stage involves the creation of a new infrastructure with its own network core, which will additionally use low and medium frequencies. Of course, this will increase the coverage of 5G networks and the stability of high-speed data transmission. Such 5G networks will be called Standalone. Thus, Huawei phones already Standalone support. Additionally, Kirin 990 supports the use of two SIM cards (2G + 3G + 4G + 5G or 2G + 3G + 4G). Kirin 990 5G uses 2 + 2 + 4 configuration with two Cortex-A76 (2.86 GHz), two Cortex-A76 (2.36 GHz) and four Cortex A-55 (1.95 GHz). Kirin 990 is manufactured without the use of EUV lithography. It does not have a 5G modem, operates at lower frequencies, and its neuromorphic processor uses only one high-performance core.

Conclusion

Today we can note the rapid improvement of HiSilicon Kirin chipsets. In just 3 years, the company introduced 5 new chipsets, each of which justifiably claims the highest level. As a result, today HiSilicon Kirin successfully competes even with Qualcomm Snapdragon. For example, Kirin 990 5G shows the same performance as Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, but has fewer memory channels, which affects the speed of data exchange, does not have NX-bit (No-eXecute) and does not use HMP (heterogeneous multiprocessor). But the price / quality ratio compensates for these differences. Of course, Kirin chipsets to a large extent ensure the success of Huawei and Honor smartphones, complementing its new Harmony OS and excellent cameras manufactured in collaboration with the famous German Leica Camera AG. In addition, Harris Interactive conducted a study of the reliability of smartphones by analyzing 130,050 cases of after-sales appeals from customers of a large European Darty retail network. According to its results, Huawei and Apple have the lowest percentage of failures and breakdowns. Thus, Huawei, Honor and iPhone smartphones today can be considered the most reliable. Of course, all these factors retain excellent prospects for the smartphones of the Chinese giant. This video offers Speed, Gaming & Screen Test comparison of Huawei Mate 30 with Kirin 990 5G vs iPhone 11 with A13 Bionic. Read the full article