Huawei Kirin 710A chip achieves mass production: report

The Huawei Kirin 710A chip, based on 14-nanometer semiconductor technology, has achieved commercial mass production. It is the first pure Chinese chip with independent intellectual property rights.

Produced by the Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the chips have a main frequency of 2.0 GHz, domestic financial news site chinastarmarket.cn reported on Monday.

It reported that almost every employee at SMIC Shanghai had received an Honor Play 4T smartphone on Sunday, with "Powered by SMIC FinFET" printed on the back. The phone showcases the commercialization of 14-nm FinFET chips made by SMIC.

Huawei's chip arm HiSilicon declined to confirm or deny the report when reached by the Global Times on Monday.

Sun Yanbiao, head of research firm N1mobile, said that research staff from both sides began exchanges on the project last year.

"The successful mass production benefits Huawei, as using chips provided by a manufacturer located in the Chinese mainland could help it reduce its reliance on Taiwan-based semiconductor maker TSMC, which will cushion shocks from China-US trade conflicts," Sun said.

Previously, all chips for Huawei mobile devices were designed by HiSilicon, and then manufactured by TSMC. But foreign media reported the US plans to prevent TSMC from selling chips to Huawei, which was put on the US' Entity List in May 2019.

As a chipmaker with high hopes of localizing chip manufacturing in the mainland and becoming an alternative to TSMC, SMIC announced on May 5 that it would apply to list on the sci-tech innovation board, a new Nasdaq-style tech board in Shanghai.

A-shares relevant to chip manufacturing equipment lithography strengthened on Monday.