A recent teardown by TechInsights revealed that Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9006C processor used in the Qingyun L540 laptop was made using a 5nm-class process technology. However, it was made by TSMC in Taiwan and not by blacklisted SMIC in mainland China, reports Bloomberg. This finding challenges the assumption that SMIC had developed its own 5nm-class production node for high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9006C system-on-chip in the Qingyun L540 laptop was made by TSMC using its 5nm-class process technology and assembled around the third quarter of 2020. This was around the time when U.S. sanctions against Huawei kicked off, according to TechInsights. Analysis reveals that the SoC was packaged during the 35th week of 2020 (August 24 – August 30, 2020), just two weeks before TSMC lost the legal ability to supply chips to Huawei.
