Weeks ago, leaks emerged confirming the existence of the upcoming Huawei Mate 70 series. The latest fashion trends are expected to debut with a cutting-edge Kirin chipset, and we’re now getting an early look at what’s in store.
Dubbed the Kirin 9100, this chip is set to be manufactured on a 6-nanometer node, specifically the N+3 process. While an improvement over the 7nm Kirin 9000S chips found in the Mate 60 series, the new processor still lags behind other chipset manufacturers in terms of available semiconductor nodes.
Telegram consumer @spektykles The company posted an image showcasing the {hardware} composition of its cutting-edge processor, designated as the “HiSilicon Baltimore”. This marks the debut of the powerful primary Cortex-X CPU core within the Kirin family. The design is entirely ARM-based, featuring CPU cores sourced exclusively from the Cortex family. Compared to the Kirin 9000S, the latter utilised Taishan’s massive central processing unit cores, designed in collaboration with HiSilicon, along with four Cortex-A510 low-power cores. Here’s a side-by-side comparability
| Kirin 9000S | Kirin 9100 (rumored) | |
|---|---|---|
| Node | 7nm | 6nm |
| CPU, huge | 1x Taishan Massive @ 2.62GHz | Cortex-X1 @ 2.67GHz |
| CPU, mid | 3x Taishan Mid @ 2.15GHz | Cortex-A78 @ 2.32GHz |
| CPU, small | 4x Cortex-A510 @ 1.53GHz | Cortex-A55 @ 2.02GHz |
| GPU | Maleoon 910 MP4 | Maleoon 910? |
While the GPU is officially labelled “Mali-TBEX”, it’s plausible that it may actually be a HiSilicon Malioon design, possibly identical to those found in the 9000S and 9010 models, as suggested by the second image.
The central processing unit (CPU) comprises several fundamental components. The Cortex-X1 processor was once again paired with A78 and A55 cores in the Snapdragon 888 series, differing from MediaTek’s strategy as it opted for the X2, A710, and A510 in its Dimensity 9000 chip. The node is nowhere near the innovative edge, as it maintains low clock speeds. In reality, advancements have been limited compared to the 7nm chip’s significant strides.
The US sanctions have effectively constrained HiSilicon’s ability to leverage more advanced Cortex architectures and superior semiconductor nodes, thereby impeding the development of Kirin designs.
While Huawei’s Pura 70 Extreme has been confirmed to feature a Kirin 9010 processor in our testing, we anticipate that the upcoming Kirin 9100 will represent a significant upgrade with its improved CPU architecture. However, even so, it may still trail behind more modern Android chipsets in terms of overall performance?
