Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

Chips are probably the strangest stage humans have ever created.

It can be as small as a fingernail, but it can also be large enough to fill an era, a few industries, and the joys and sorrows of thousands of people.

This seems to be especially true for mobile chips this year. We all know that the decennial mobile generational switch is coming, and the industrial explosion and industry reshuffle in the 5G era should come as scheduled. Mobile chips at this time, especially flagship chips with representativeness, seem bound to carry enough stories.

Kirin 990, in this context, was born in the prologue of the 5G+AI era. On September 6, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, delivered a keynote speech on "Rethink Evolution" at IFA 2019 in Berlin, Germany, officially releasing Huawei's latest generation of flagship chips Kirin 990 series, including Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G chips.

As in previous years, the new Huawei flagship chip, Kirin 990, also supports the attention expectations of the media and users, bringing a lot of significant highlights, such as exponentially improved AI computing power, the first 5G SoC chip, SLR noise reduction algorithm applied to mobile phone chips, etc.

But unlike in previous years, the Kirin 990 series seems to carry more meaning. Its release keyword is "refactoring." In today's 5G oncoming, AI rapid advance, global terminal shipments continue to decline, Kirin 990 exactly reconstructed what, seems to contain the answer based on technological innovation, but also detached from technology.

From the perspective of mobile communication industry history, perhaps the most noteworthy point is that Kirin 990 is not a single leader in the flagship chip sequence, but an overall leader. From catch-up, stalemate to transcendence qualitative change, behind the faint sound of the times thunder.

990 is a very significant number. Chinese people pay attention to the unity of nine, Kirin 990 points to the "one," perhaps it is China's Mobile device industry one yuan to start again.

Five years a dream

Back in 2014, if someone said Huawei would produce a world-leading mobile chip, I don't know what you thought at that time.

At least most of the netizens at that time were obviously not mentally prepared for this incident. On the occasion of the launch of Kirin 990, I went back and read the comments of Kirin 920 that year. At that time, on the post bar and forum, netizens seemed to be more distrustful of Kirin. For example, GPU is not as good as Qualcomm, 28 nm technology has waited too long, and so on. Although Kirin series chips were comparable to flagship chips in CPU specifications and other fields at that time, no one said how far Kirin was ahead.

Time came to Kirin 970, 980 era, people began to talk more about Kirin innovation, such as breakthroughs in the field of end-side AI, leading in key performance. At this time, online about Kirin, Snapdragon and Apple A series chip in the end who is the first, began to show a stalemate debate. At least there is no doubt that Kirin has joined the ranks of the world's number one mobile chip.

When Kirin 990 was released, for those who remember this "history," the most shocking thing is that no matter from any point of view of evaluating a mobile chip, Kirin 990 5G has achieved the task that seemed impossible five years ago-truly leading the mobile chip field.

Thousands of horses and thousands of troops, like a dream.

Huashan No.1 Lu

It is necessary to go back to the Kirin 990 chip itself and verify whether the judgment about "overall lead" is just my wishful thinking.

We know that although Huawei HiSilicon has a long-term accumulation in the field of mobile chips, it can only be regarded as a latecomer on flagship mobile chips like the whole Chinese semiconductor industry. This has led to the fact that in the field of basic chips such as CPU and GPU, Kirin seems to be in the position of follower in the past.

As for the comparison between Kirin and Qualcomm and Apple, the focus of debate among good people often lies in the basic performance of Kirin. There is a saying that "Kirin grows in innovation and Xiaolong grows in foundation."

Performance optimization had always been a path from ancient times. One could only attack aggressively, not outwit it. A significant breakthrough point of Kirin 990 5G is that it has made amazing innovation and optimization in performance, forcibly breaking through the performance limit of the industry's flagship new product.

The most basic embodiment is that Kirin 990 5G integrates 10.3 billion transistors, adopts the industry-leading 7nm+ EUV process, and the plate-level area is 36% smaller than other solutions in the industry. Although the chip does not necessarily have better performance as many transistors, the number of transistors represents computing power and is the basis for performance and solution integration.

Compare it to understand the subversion of Kirin 990 5G. Among last year's flagship chips, Kirin 980 and Apple A12 were both 6.9 billion transistors, and Snapdragon 855 was 6 billion. Kirin 990 5G jumped to more than 10 billion mark, which is not only the help of using 7nm+ EUV, the most advanced process in the industry, but also the concentrated embodiment of integration capability and design capability.

With the evolution support of basic technology, Kirin 990 5G has made great progress in both CPU and GPU performance. In terms of CPU, Kirin 990 5G adopts a three-stage energy efficiency architecture of 2 large cores (based on Cortex-A76 development)+2 central cores (based on Cortex-A76 development)+4 small cores (Cortex-A55). The highest frequency can reach 2.86GHz. Compared with the mainstream flagship chip in the industry, the single-core performance is improved by 10% and the multi-core performance is improved by 9%.

For GPUs that have long been considered relatively short boards, Kirin 990 5G is equipped with a 16-core Mali-G76 GPU, which has 6% higher graphics processing performance and 20% better energy efficiency than the mainstream flagship chips in the industry.

For gaming scenarios, Kirin 990 5G also provides high-performance, energy-efficient, high-quality gaming solutions. At the same time, the new system-level Smart Cache shunt supports intelligent allocation of DDR data, saving up to 15% bandwidth and 12% power consumption compared with the previous generation in high-bandwidth scenarios such as heavy games.

In addition to CPU and GPU, it seems that there is no need to say much about innovation in imaging, and users around the world are clearly convinced of Huawei's imaging capabilities. This time, Kirin 990 5G launched dual-domain joint video noise reduction technology in the world, and the video noise reduction capability increased by 20%; and for the first time, BM3D SLR hardware noise reduction technology was realized on mobile phone chips, and the photo noise reduction capability increased by 30%.

With such a large performance optimization, there is reason to believe that Kirin 990 5G has broken through the expected limits of the industry and has taken the lead on this road that must go forward.

In addition, in today's global attention to AI and 5G battlefield, Kirin is holding a sword world wide.

AI Yicheng

If Kirin 970 was born with NPU, more questions in the industry were what AI was used for and whether it was necessary to form the core module of the chip, then today, the AI acceleration module in SoC has formed an industry consensus, and AI has also become the core source of smartphone innovation capability.

In this process, Huawei has also changed from the discoverer of the New World to the city builder and ecological hub of the New World when other ships are desperately approaching.

Over the past two years, Kirin chips have built advantages on the mobile AI side, which can be divided into three parts:

I. Bet on end-side AI to discover the New World

In 2017, Kirin 970 adopted independent NPU neural network processing unit for the first time in the industry, which opened the industrial application of flagship AI image recognition; in 2018, Kirin 980 was equipped with dual-core NPU, bringing a series of innovative experiences such as AI portrait color retention and calorie recognition. The continuous enhancement of computing power and industrial application exploration have built Huawei's first-mover advantage in mobile AI, which is always ahead of the industry for a cycle. By the time Kirin 990 was released, this cycle was not only reflected in the substantial improvement of its AI computing power, but also in the evolution of various AI capabilities, as well as the integration of AI in ISP, AI and AR capabilities. At a time when users accuse Apple of lacking AI computing power for industrial applications, Huawei is already far ahead in the exploration of the New World.

II. Strategic meetings and meetings with Da Vinci architecture

Not long ago, the Kirin 810 chip was equipped with Huawei's self-developed Da Vinci architecture on a mobile phone chip for the first time. Da Vinci architecture is a breakthrough 3D matrix computing architecture. Through the simultaneous inclusion of multi-layer data of different dimensions, the tensor calculation task requirements are effectively supported, a better calculation foundation is achieved, and the AI task processing capability is exponentially improved.

The ascending series chips and IP based on Da Vinci architecture can be said to be the foundation of Huawei based on AI and the crystallization of Huawei AI technology system. After incorporating Kirin, the effect was amazing, allowing Kirin 810 to obtain the AI acceleration capability of flagship chip at the cost of mid-range chip.

This Kirin 990 5G is the first flagship chip with Da Vinci architecture NPU, and innovatively designed NPU dual large core +NPU micro-core computing architecture.

With the support of dual-core NPU(Shengteng Lite*2), Kirin 990 5G has a performance advantage of up to 6 times and an energy efficiency advantage of up to 8 times compared with other flagship AI chips in the industry. Among several mainstream neural network tasks, the Kirin 990 5G has the best FP16 and int8 performance and energy efficiency in the industry.

The micronucleus NPU(Tiny) focuses on providing ultra-low power applications. AI, as a highly extensible ability, can be large or small in task volume, and large-scale AI tasks require the blessing of NPU with large computing power. Some typical AI tasks with high frequency and low power consumption are more suitable for micronucleus NPU operation. For example, in Face Recognition, NPU micronucleus can increase energy efficiency by up to 24 times compared with large nucleus, making AI operation more power-saving.

In addition, it must be noted that Da Vinci architecture means Kirin 990 5G, which will open access to Huawei flagship and Huawei full-stack AI capabilities. The resulting cloud-integrated AI imagination, with a great probability, will constitute the next cycle of Huawei AI to continue to lead significantly.

Building ecological integrity for developers

Since Kirin 970, Huawei has launched the HiAI platform, opening up AI capabilities and empowering developers from the beginning. At present, with the continuous maturity, comprehensive opening and increasing number of operators of HiAI platform, Huawei has established a highly complete AI development ecosystem. According to recent data, Huawei AI API calls reached 1.6 trillion times. From photography, travel, shopping, health, education, creativity, art and many other aspects, Huawei's AI capabilities have been closely linked to our lives.

The launch of Kirin 990 5G will further upgrade HiAI platform: HiAI will support more than 300 operators and continue to maintain industry leadership; it will provide developers with complete IDE tools to support automatic code generation; it will provide da Vinci architecture IR openness to support the docking of mainstream frameworks in the industry and achieve more complete compatibility.

Mobile AI terminal shipments first, platform, ecological tools are the most complete, these factors let Kirin and HiAI create AI developers promised land. Today, this has also become the main component of Huawei Mobile AI's overall leadership.

The above three points can be said to form a complete convergence in Kirin 990. For AI discovery exploration, technology reunion, and ecological prosperity, the AI imagination space supported by Kirin 990 has greatly crossed.

For example, some AI application prospects that we have been able to see: based on the combination of AI and ISP capabilities, Kirin 990 5G supports Face AR capability, which can model, track and capture faces in real time through face image data and neural network algorithms, and further analyze health data such as heart rate and respiratory rate behind face information; Kirin 990 5G can also realize AI multi-person real-time background change. Through advanced AI multi-instance segmentation technology, each character subject in the video picture can be identified separately, and the background can be replaced by multi-character video shooting, and even the characters to be retained in the picture can be selected;AI video super-division can also restore the video quality shot by old equipment, so that the picture can instantly reach HD texture.

The AI era evolved from Kirin has forced the industry to embark on the road of mobile intelligence. In Kirin 990 5G, the advantages of industry first mover, ecological platform and violent performance provided by Da Vinci architecture are fully integrated.

Kirin's AI city, now is ten thousand lights, bright lights such as day. Horizontally, neither Apple nor Qualcomm has been able to gather the advantages of Kirin chips in the AI field-including industrial acumen, ecological construction capabilities, and Huawei's huge technology R & D investment.

From self-discovery and tamping of industry track to continuous acceleration of overall leadership, mobile AI is the most perfect play of Huawei terminal in recent years.

5G for a moment

The ability to support communications in a chip is a unique test.

It seems that over the years of 4G, we have paid little attention to the 4G connectivity of a new product, or at least not as a central consideration. When 5G arrives, whether the chip can support a complete 5G network and whether to integrate the 5G baseband seems to have become a topic of common concern inside and outside the industry.

Mobile network iteration is a big event that happens once a decade. And iterative gap, often easy to happen industry shuffle. Because the chip industry with better understanding and better preparation for the new generation of mobile communication networks can often be more closely connected with the next application generation, product generation and user expectation iteration. However, once the stall occurs during the generational change, it is likely to cause permanent industrial ranking exchange.

Therefore, 5G is a chip competition that has been brewing for ten years and takes place in an instant. The victory of Kirin 990 5G seems to have been regarded by the whole industry as a logical and inevitable thing.

This is due to Huawei's overall leadership in 5G basic technology and network-side technology, and eventually condensed into end-to-end technology leadership. In the field of mobile chips, the advantages of HiSilicon began to appear since the Barron 5000. It was only until the Kirin 990 5G that the position exchange of ten years was finally completed.

Kirin 990 5G is the world's first mobile chip that simultaneously supports SA/NSA dual architecture and TDD/FDD full frequency band. It can fully meet the hardware requirements of mobile phone chips under different networks and different networking modes. It is also the first full Netcom 5G SoC in the industry. Its 5G peak download rate reaches 2.3Gbps and the uplink peak rate reaches 1.25Gbps. In order to solve the power consumption problem brought by 5G, Kirin 990 5G takes the lead in supporting BWP(Bandwidth Part) technology, realizing flexible switching of bandwidth resources under the condition of 5G large bandwidth. Compared with the mainstream flagship chip in the industry, 5G power consumption performance is 44% better, realizing stable 5G connection.

If the performance lead is the warrior's charge again and again, and the AI lead is a beautiful magic of the mage, then the Kirin 990 5G lead is more like an ambush: long-term layout, waiting quietly, and then completing the one-hit kill for the next decade.

At this point, Kirin 990 5G has completed the lead in all areas that can be seen.

Fifty years, one reconstruction

There is a paragraph on the Internet that said that the last time China took the lead in the world in wireless communications, it was Zhou Youwang's beacon fire.

Rather than funny, I believe you can feel the sigh and desolation. Communication is really about too many things. It is the cornerstone of social and economic development and the lifeblood of intelligent technology landing. What's more, China deserves to be the world's number one in the number of terminals and users.

However, in basic technology, especially mobile chips, we have never been ahead. The Kirin 990 reconstructs something. So I think the most important thing is that it reconstructs the story of the new era of 5G+AI. In the new opening, China Mobile has the strongest mobile chip in the world; Chinese users will get the leading network experience; Chinese developers are building artificial intelligence in the most imaginative way.

At the beginning of all the stories of mobile SoC chips, the arrival of Kirin 990 series makes the change of industry pattern really happen at this moment. Fifty years ago we probably didn't know the story of mobile communications, but in fifty years we've waited too many times for a new beginning in that story.

In the 1G era, it was a decade of "mobile phones," and most people didn't know what mobile phones were.

In the 2G era, we began to use mobile phones, but basically all rely on imports. China's mobile phones are still far away, especially China Mobile chips.

Nokia and Samsung's 3G era, the Chinese terminal brand started, the Chinese Internet began to imitate foreign services and applications. Chinese people began to admire the underlying technology of Mobile device.

Since 2007, Apple has exploded in the 4G era, creating a global product myth. In the second half of 4G, Chinese brands accelerated in an all-round way, and Huawei became the only brand in the world with shipments growing by more than 10% year-on-year in Q2 2019. Driven by Huawei and other manufacturers, Chinese consumer terminals rank first in the world.

Until today, the beginning of 5G has arrived, and Kirin 990 has taken the lead. Who does the next 5G era belong to? Where does the next change come from? Who's gonna tell the rest of the story? Fifty years, all the stories have been reconstructed, light in the sky, the road at the foot.

Li Yi of Tang Dynasty has a poem "Send Liu Judge to Zhenwu," which is very suitable for today:

Guan Han plug elm fall, moon white Hu Tianfeng.

The monarch chased Yao Jiang, and the unicorn had meritorious service.

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