Huawei’s Chip Ambitions Launched with Processor for Data Centers, Cloud Computing

This week, Huawei revealed a processor chip for use in data centers and cloud computing as the Chinese telecom equipment maker seeks to expand into new markets despite increased international scrutiny.

The telecoms gear company claims its new Kunpeng 920 chipOpens a new window is the highest-performing processor based on the semiconductor architecture of ARM Holdings, the British chip-design firm now owned by Japan’s SoftBank. The chip was designed by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon to process the rising tide of data generated by smartphones and other consumer services.

“We believe that, with the advent of the intelligent society, the computing market will see continuous growth in the future” said William XuOpens a new window , Huawei board director and chief strategy marketing officer, in a presentation from the company’s base in Shenzhen.

The company, better known for its network gear and smartphone handsets, is one of several Chinese groups that have come under the spotlight due to warnings by Western players that they might pose a security risk.

Huawei has repeated denied allegations from the US that its telecoms equipment could be used by Chinese authorities to spy on citizens. Its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the US, leading to the retaliatory detention of Canadians in China.

Moving Away From Western Tech Reliance Giving Mistrust Traction

Beijing has been making a concerted technology push to reduce its companies’ reliance on Western technology and foster a thriving homegrown tech sector. Huawei’s HiSilicon chip design arm was created in 2004 for just such a purpose, and recent political headwinds will have only strengthened China’s drive for independence from Western suppliers.

Based on the cutting-edge 7 nanometer processOpens a new window that enables chips to host smaller and more efficient components, the Kunpeng 920’s 64 cores run at 2.6 GHz. It integrates 8-channel DDR4 memory with bandwidth 46% faster than incumbents. It offers two 100G RoCE ports and supports PCIe 4.0 and CCIX interfaces.

The Kunpeng 920 central processing unit scores more than 930 in SPECint tests, a computer benchmark specification for CPU integer processing power. This score is 25% higher than the industry benchmark, while power efficiency is 30% better than peers, according to the company.

At the presentation, which came just ahead of the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Huawei also revealed a new range of three servers powered by the chip. The new models in the TaiShan server series were “built for big data, distributed storage and ARM-native application scenarios” and offer enterprises high performance and low power consumption.

Strategic Partnerships to Continue Despite Animosity

Xu said the ARM industry was seeing a new development opportunity. “The Kunpeng 920 CPU and TaiShan servers newly released by Huawei are primarily used in big data, distributed storage, and ARM-native applications. We will work with global partners in the spirit of openness, collaboration and shared success to drive the development of the ARM ecosystem and expand the computing space, and embrace a diversified computing era.”

ARM’s chipsets have been big in mobile devices, but the company has been pushing into the server and cloud market currently dominated by US chipmaker Intel. Huawei’s new products will pit it against players with 7nm server chipsets including AMD and Nvidia.

Despite their support of ARM, Huawei’s Xu was keen to stress his company would continue its long-term strategic partnerships with Intel.

The Kunpeng 920 is not Huawei’s first 7nm chipset, with the Kirin 980 used mostly in its mobile phones and the Ascend 910 for data centers and cloud-based artificial intelligence applications.

“With Kirin 980, Huawei has taken smartphones to a new level of intelligence. With products and services (e.g., Huawei Cloud) designed based on Ascend 310, Huawei enables inclusive AI for industries,” said Xu. “Today, with Kunpeng 920, we are entering an era of diversified computing embodied by multiple cores and heterogeneity. Huawei has invested patiently and intensively in computing innovation to continuously make breakthroughs. We will work with our customers and partners to build a fully connected, intelligent world.”

In an interview with CNBCOpens a new window , Xu said that with the help of its latest products, the company aims to makes its cloud computing service one of the top five global cloud providers.