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The memory modules in Huawei's latest data center chip, the Kunpeng 930, appear to have been manufactured with TSMC's N5 manufacturing node. TSMC started mass producing products with the N5, or 5nm, technology in 2020, and the latest memory chips are built with the N3 node, with N2 expected to enter the fray soon. However, with the N5 bitcell being roughly similar to the N3 bitcell size, it's unclear whether Kunpeng lags behind the latest chips at least in this aspect.
Huwei's Latest Data Center Chip, The Kunpeng 930, Might Not Be As Outdated Over Western Counterparts As Previously Thought
According to a user on X, Huawei's Kunpeng 930 was available for sale on a website, which led a user to buy the chip and take it apart. The Kunpeng 930's predecessor, the Kunpeng 920, is listed on Huawei's website, which outlines that the chip relies on British design house Arm's architecture and is manufactured with the 7-nanometer chip manufacturing technology.
While Huwei has not listed the Kunpeng 930 on its website, the chip has surfaced in purported benchmarks. Huawei launched the Kunpeng 920 in 2019 and aimed to follow up with the 930 in 2021. However, US restrictions that prevented the firm from relying on TSMC's high-end 7-nanometer chip manufacturing processes stalled Huawei's progress. Following the 2019 announcement, the Kunpeng 930 apparently made an appearance last year in the form of a Geekbench 6 benchmark.
Now, an X user going by the name Jukan claims to have come across a video of the Kunpeng 930 being 'cut open' by an electron microscope. Jukan shares that a used Kunpeng 930 was listed on a Chinese trading site, following which it was bought and investigated. While they do not share the video of the investigation into the Kunpeng 930, Jukan shares that the chip was packaged close to the end of 2024 and featured SRAM, or memory modules, which had characteristics resembling TSMC's N5 process technology family.
Jukan uses this to conclude that Huawei might be relying on TSMC's technology, which first entered production in 2020 and indicates that the Chinese firm heavily lags Western chip technology. However, what the social media user fails to note is that the N5 and the newer N3 technology are quite similar when it comes to bitcell size. In SRAM terminology, a bitcell is a unit used to measure the density of a module.
Data shows that an N5 bitcell is 0.021µm, which is similar to the size of an N3 bitcell. In other words, while the SRAM of the Kunpeng 930 might be made through the N5 technology, in terms of density, it wouldn't face any comparative disadvantage.
Of course, since the purported Kunpeng 930's manufacturing technology is unclear, it cannot be conclusively concluded whether the chip can match its Western counterparts. Last year's benchmark placed the chip's performance at par with AMD's chips from 2020. Given that TSMC announced the N5 in 2020 as well, the performance equivalence implies that the chip continues to be hampered by US sanctions on Huawei.
