Newsletter
A mysterious Kirin K9 chip is coming, it seems. That chip was mentioned by Digital Chat Station, one of China’s most prominent tipsters. Unfortunately, though, the tipster was not particularly talkative when it comes to that processor.
The Huawei Kirin K9 chip is coming, though it could be just a rebrand of the Kirin 9000s
Considering the name ‘K9’, this could be just short for the Kirin 9000s, in which case we’re only looking at a rebrand. It could be a rebrand for global markets, or something of the sort, it remains to be seen.
In any case, the tipster mentioned this chip while talking about the Huawei Nova 12 Ultra specifications. That phone will offer a 1.5K OLED display with two holes, and an interesting dual camera setup on the front, including a 60-megapixel camera. A 50-megapixel main camera with variable aperture is also mentioned, as is blazing fast charging, and so on.
The Huawei P70 series is expected to arrive in Q1 2024
So, the Kirin K9 chip will fuel that device, but it could also fuel the Huawei P70 series which is expected to arrive in Q1 next year. The Kirin 9000s chip was announced a while back, and it’s the first Kirin chip after a long, long time.
This processor was made by SMIC, and it’s a 7nm processor. It fuels the Huawei Mate 60 series, and the Huawei Mate X5 too. It enables 5G connectivity for Huawei devices, which is something they lacked since the US sanctions hit.
The Huawei P70 series will almost certainly utilize a Kirin chip. The only thing that we don’t know is… which one. It could use the Kirin K9 mentioned here, whether it’s a rebrand of the Kirin 9000s, or not.
Huawei & SMIC are expected to announce a new 5nm chip, following the Kirin 9006C
Huawei and SMIC are expected to launch a new processor at some point in 2024, though. The two companies did announce the Kirin 9006C not long ago, a chip that fuels the Qingyun L540 laptops.
That is a 5nm processor, which suggests that the two companies are capable of providing a 5nm chip. It would be interesting to see a 5nm processor for the Huawei P70 series, that’s for sure. It remains to be seen if it will happen or not. We may have to wait until the Mate 70 series.