#1
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) 14nm process is now in mass production and the yield rate is constantly improving.
SMIC will be useful to Huawei in producing its entry-level Kirin chips.
SMIC 14NM MASS-PRODUCTION IS SMOOTH – YIELD RATE IS STEADILY CLIMBING
https://www.gizchina.com/2020/08/11/smic-14nm-is-now-in-mass-production-yield-rate-is-steadily-climbing/
Recall that the Honor 4T Play was released back in April 2020. This smartphone comes with a Kirin 710A processor. This chip is a lower version of the previous Kirin 710. With SMIC’s 14nm process, Kirin 710A has a main frequency of 2.0GHz. Although this is only an entry-level chip, the Kirin 710A” represents a breakthrough in achieving an all Chinese chip. It is also an ice-breaking move for China’s semiconductor chip technology.
http://www.insightsemicon.com/news/article/?no=133257
최근 SMIC는 국가집적회로(IC)산업투자펀드와 상하이집적회로펀드로부터 총 22억5000만달러(약 2조7758억원)을 투자받는 것으로 알려졌다. 두 펀드는 정부 주도하에 이뤄지고 있다. 아울러 지난달 중소벤척업 전용증시 상하이거래소의 ‘커창판’에 2차 상장, 약 8조원을 조달했다. 연이은 투자로 SMIC 생산기술이 향상될 경우 하이실리콘이 설계한 최신 AP를 제작할 수 있게 된다.
#2
Huawei will reportedly begin using two processor solutions from Mate 40 at the earliest, among which MediaTek and Samsung may be candidates. It is said that Huawei has increased its procurement of MediaTek chips in the market starting in May 2020, and even “stocked up” with a price increase of USD10 per chip. Moreover, Huawei recently ordered 120M chips from MediaTek, and 6 of the mobile phones released in 2020 use MediaTek chips. (Yicai, CN Beta)
#3
Huawei has confirmed that TSMC will no longer make HiSilicon chips after mid-Sept 2020. Isaiah Research has pointed out that TSMC relies on Apple, Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia, MediaTek, Intel, Bitmain, and Altera to fill the vacancies left by HiSilicon, and the full capacity of 5nm is not a problem. Isaiah has explained that in addition to Apple’s A14, A14X, etc., Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 875+ chip will be put into TSMC’s 5nm faster than expected, and MediaTek’s D2000 will also begin in 4Q20 with TSMC’s 5nm process. (Isaiah Research, Laoyaoba, Gizmo China)
#4
According to Credit Suisse, for China, the semiconductor IC design has also been growing at a 20-25% CAGR in the past decade, driven by the government’s initiative to support local semiconductor ecosystem and HiSilicon’s success in smartphone chipset supplying to its parent company, Huawei, and its share gains in networking equipment market in 4G and the upcoming 5G. Outside fabless, Credit Suisse expects the start-ups and system companies to develop more customised ICs for their own use in cloud computing (e.g., cloud training and inference) and supply the core processors to customers adopting their cloud solutions.
The design service capability and capacity, IP portfolio, success rate, supply chain relationship, target applications and technology/IP support are the important factors when customers choose their service provider. Credit Suisse compares the competiveness for the major companies, including Global Unichip, Alchip, and Faraday in Taiwan and VeriSilicon in Mainland China.
Following the development in the past decade, the ecosystem developed by China local CPU fabless has been more comprehensive, with major players including Loongson, Phytium, Kunpeng, Sunway, Zhaoxin and Hygon. Credit Suisse introduces the development of these companies and compare the chipsets.
p.s
기존 TSMC 5nm, 7nm 공전라인에서 생산되던 Kirin 고가 모델용 AP/통신칩은 만들 수 없겠지만 저가 모델용 칩은 곧 만들 수 있는 수준에 이르렀다고 판단해야하는 것으로 보임.
화웨이는 9월 15일 이후는 TSMC에서 생산된 자회사 Hisilicon AP/모뎀 칩을 더이상 받을 수 없음.
이에 대해 작년부터 화웨이는 재고를 쌓고 있었다는 소식 전해드린 바 있으며 대만 Mediatek 뿐만아니라 삼성전자도 그 대상이라는 뉴스도 이미 전해드린 바 있음.
중국 정부의 정부보조금이 SMIC등 반도체 파운드리, 패키징시험 전문업체(OSAT), 메모리/비메모리 팹리스 설계업체에 지속적으로 흘러들어가는 이유임.
SMIC, "7nm 내년 양산"...TSMC보다 3년 늦어
https://www.kipost.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=205037
14nm '4년' 격차→7nm '3년 격차'
중국 언론 신랑VR에 따르면 SMIC는 내년부터 7nm 저전력 칩 생산을 시작할 계획이다. 7nm N+1, N+2 공정의 시생산에 내년 말 돌입한다. SMIC가 2분기 실적발표회를 열고 이같이 밝혔다.