Huawei’s latest high-end phones use more Chinese suppliers, including new flash memory chips and improved chip processors, a teardown analysis shows, a sign that China is making progress toward technological self-sufficiency.
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Huawei’s latest high-end phones use more Chinese suppliers, including new flash memory chips and improved chip processors, a teardown analysis shows, a sign that China is making progress toward technological self-sufficiency.
Online tech repair firm iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International examined the internals of a Huawei Pura 70 Pro for Reuters and found a NAND memory chip they said was likely made internally by the Chinese telecom equipment maker. The chip unit HiSilicon packages, as well as several other components manufactured by Huawei.
These findings have not been reported before.
Huawei’s resurgence in the high-end smartphone market after four years of U.S. sanctions has been widely watched by rivals and U.S. politicians as it has become a symbol of growing U.S.-China trade friction and China’s quest for technological self-sufficiency.
The companies also discovered that the Pura 70 phones run a Huawei-made advanced processing chipset called the Kirin 9010, which may just be a slightly improved version of the China-made advanced chip used in the Huawei Mate 60 series.
Shahram Mokhtari, chief teardown technician at iFixit, said: “While we can’t provide an exact percentage, we can say that the usage of domestic parts is high and certainly higher than the Mate 60.”
“It’s about self-sufficiency, all of this, everything you see when you turn on your smartphone, anything you see made by a Chinese manufacturer, it’s about self-sufficiency,” Mokhtari said.
Huawei declined to comment.
Huawei launched four Pura 70 smartphones in late April, and the series was quickly sold out.Analysts say this could capture more market share iPhone maker Applewhile policymakers in Washington have questioned the effectiveness of U.S. restrictions on the telecommunications equipment giant.
Early analysis of the Mate 60, launched last August, by teardown companies such as TechInsights found that the phone used South Korea SK hynix. SK hynix At the time, it said it would no longer do business with Huawei, and analysts said the chips may have come from inventory.
iFixit and TechSearch discovered that the Pura 70 still contains DRAM chips made by SK Hynix, but the NAND flash memory chips are likely to be packaged by Huawei’s HiSilicon unit this time and consist of NAND chips with a capacity of 1 terabit each. This is comparable to products produced by major flash memory manufacturers such as SK Hynix and Kioxia. Micron.
However, they added that the companies were unable to clearly identify the wafer manufacturer because of unfamiliar markings on the NAND wafers. But iFixit added that they believe HiSilicon may also produce the memory controller.
“During our teardown, our chip ID experts have identified it as a specific HiSilicon chip,” Mokhtari said.
SK Hynix reiterated that “since the restrictions against Huawei were announced, it has been strictly complying with relevant policies and has suspended any transactions with the company since then.”
iFixit and TechSearch’s analysis of the processor used in the Pura 70 Pro also suggests that Huawei may have only made incremental improvements in its ability to produce advanced chips with Chinese partners in the months since it launched the Mate 60 series.
The processor is similar to the one used in the Mate 60 series produced for Huawei. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation They said that they use the 7-nanometer N+2 manufacturing process of Chinese chip foundries.
iFixit said: “This is significant because news of 9000S on the 7nm node last year caused some panic, when U.S. lawmakers faced the possibility that sanctions imposed on Chinese chipmakers might not slow their technological progress. “
“The fact that 9010 is still a 7nm process chip and very close to 9000S seems to indicate that Chinese chip manufacturing has indeed slowed down.”
However, he warned against underestimating Huawei and said SMIC is still expected to jump to the 5nm manufacturing node before the end of the year.
SMIC did not respond to a request for comment.
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