Huawei this week introduced the Kirin 980, the system on a chip (SoC) that will bring about a new era of On-Device AI. It will feature in Huawei Mate 20 series which is confirmed for an October 16 2018 launch.
Equipped with all-new CPU, GPU and Dual NPU, the Kirin 980 is the ultimate engine to power next-generation productivity and entertainment applications. It supports LTE Cat.21 with a peak download speed of 1.4Gbps. Additionally, the Kirin 980 supports carrier aggregation, even across frequency bands, so users are free to choose their mobile operators and still enjoy the same premium connectivity experience, regardless of where they are.
Huawei claims that Kirin 980 as the world’s first commercial SoC manufactured with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer Company’s (TSMC) 7nm process. The cutting edge TSMC 7nm process technology enables Kirin 980 to pack 6.9 billion transistors within a 1cm2 die size, up 1.6 times from the previous generation. Compared to the 10nm process, the 7nm process delivers 20 percent improved SoC performance and 40 percent improved SoC efficiency, claims Huawei.
The Kirin 980 is also the first SoC to embed Cortex-A76 cores, which are 75 percent more powerful and 58 percent more efficient compared to their previous generation, claims Huawei. In an octa-core configuration, the CPU in Kirin 980 is comprised of two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores; two high-efficiency Cortex-A76 cores; and four extreme efficiency Cortex-A55 cores.
Richard Yu, CEo, Huawei Consumer Business Group
Last year, we showed the world the potential of On-Device AI with the Kirin 970, and this year, we’ve designed an all-round powerhouse that not only features outstanding AI capabilities, but also brings cutting-edge raw performance to consumers.
