Huawei brings forth the evolution of mobile AI with the introduction of its new system on a chip (SoC). The Kirin 980 is touted as “The Ultimate Power of Mobile AI”. It is also the world’s first commercial SoC manufactured with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer Company’s 7nm process.

New State-of-the-Art Process

The new system combines best-in-class performance, efficiency, connectivity features and Dual NPU AI processing power. The cutting-edge TSMC 7nm process technology enables Kirin 980 to pack 6.9 billion transistors within a 1cm² die size. This is up 1.6 times from the previous generation SoC. According to Huawei, the 7nm process delivers 20% improved SoC performance. It also delivers 40% more SoC efficiency.

At its Cores

The Kirin 980 is also the first SoC to embed Cortex-A76 cores. It is 75% more powerful and 58% more efficient compared to the latter’s predecessor. In an octa-core configuration, the CPU in Kirin 980 is comprised of two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores; two high-efficiency Cortex-A76 cores; and four extreme efficiency Cortex-A55 cores.

Getting Graphic

Additionally, Huawei has integrated the Mali-G76 GPU into the Kirin 980 to deliver unparalleled gaming experiences. This addressed the increased sophistication in mobile games graphics in recent years.  The GPU features an innovative clock boosting technology that utilises AI. The feature will intelligently identify gaming workloads and adjust resource allocation for optimal gaming performance.

More Intelligence

Coming back to its Dual NPU feature, the Kirin 980 elevates the On-Device AI experience with greater processing power and intelligence. Moreover, Kirin 980 supports common AI frameworks such as Caffee, Tensorflow and Tensorflow Lite. This provides a suite of tools that simplifies the difficulty of engineering On-Device AI, allowing developers to easily tap into the leading processing power of the Dual NPU.

The first Huawei device to feature the Kirin 980 is the brand’s upcoming Mate series device. The model is making its debut this coming October.