Huawei Launches Kirin 980, the World's First Commercial 7nm SoC

BERLIN-- August 31, 2018 -- In his IFA 2018 keynote titled “The Ultimate Power of Mobile AI”, Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Mr. Richard Yu introduced the Kirin 980, thesystem on a chip (SoC) that will bring about the next evolution ofmobile AI. As the world’s first commercial SoC manufactured with TaiwanSemiconductor Manufacturer Company’s (TSMC) 7nm process, Kirin 980 combines best-in-class performance, efficiency, connectivity features,and Dual NPU AI processing power.

“Last year, we showed the world the potential of On-Device AI with theKirin 970, and this year, we’ve designed an all-round powerhouse that features outstanding AI capabilities, and brings cutting-edge rawperformance to consumers,” said Mr. Yu. “Equipped with all-new CPU, GPUand Dual NPU, the Kirin 980 is the ultimate engine to powernext-generation productivity and entertainment applications.”

Absolute Superiority

The cutting edge TSMC 7nm process technology enables Kirin 980 to pack6.9 billion transistors within a 1cm2 die size, 1.6 times ofthe previous generation. Compared to the 10nm process, the 7nm process delivers 20 percent improved SoC performance and 40 percent improved SoCpower efficiency.

The Kirin 980 is the first SoC to embed Cortex-A76-based cores, whichare 75 percent more powerful and 58 percent more efficient compared totheir previous generation. The Kirin CPU subsystem uses an intelligent Flex-scheduling mechanism that creates a 3-level energy efficiencyarchitecture consisting of two super-big cores based on Cortex-A76, twobig cores based on Cortex-A76, and four little cores Cortex-A55.Compared with the traditional big.LITTLE design, this solution designates the large high-performance cores to handle immediate, intensive workloads; the large, high-efficiency cores to providesustained performance; and ultra-efficiency cores to tackle everyday,light activities with extreme power efficiency. Kirin 980 enablesquicker app launch times, better multi-tasking and a generally smootheruser experience.

As graphics in mobile games have become more and more sophisticated inrecent years, Huawei has integrated the Mali-G76 GPU into the Kirin 980to deliver unparalleled gaming experiences. Debuting with the Kirin 980,Mali-G76 offers 46 percent greater graphics processing power at 178percent improved power efficiency over the previous generation.

• Industry’s First “Dual-Brain” Power: The latest Kirin SoCrepresents a new era of On-Device AI. The Dual NPU Kirin 980 elevates the On-Device AI experience with greater processing power and intelligence.
• Full-Featured ISP: In pursuit of the best smartphonephotography experience, Huawei integrated its proprietary fourth-generation ISP into the SoC.
• World-Class Connectivity: To deliver the best connectivity tousers of Kirin 980-powered devices, Huawei integrated the world’sfirst modem supporting LTE Cat.21 with a peak download speed of 1.4Gbps.

About Huawei Consumer BG

Huawei’s products and services are available in more than 170 countries,and are used by a third of the world’s population. Fourteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China. Huawei Consumer BG is one of Huawei’s three business unitsand covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables and cloud services,etc. Huawei’s global network is built on almost 30 years of expertise inthe telecom industry and is dedicated to delivering the latesttechnological advances to consumers around the world.

Please visit: https://consumer.huawei.com/en/