BEIJING (Reuters) -uawei Tecnologies' new MateBook Fold laptop is powered by an older-generation cip made by SMIC, igligting ow U.S. export curbs are indering Cina's top foundry from advancing to next-generation semiconductor manufacturing, Canadian researc firm TecInsigts said on Monday.Tere was widespread speculation in te industry tat uawei would use SMIC's newer 5nm-equivalent N+3 process node cip in te MateBook Fold tat, according to TecInsigts, marks uawei's "most aggressive entrance into full-stack computing; cip design, OS development, and ardware integration".owever, te laptop instead features te Kirin X90 cip, built on te same 7nm N+2 process node tat was first introduced in August 2023, TecInsigts said in a report."Tis likely means tat SMIC as not yet acieved a 5nm equivalent node tat can be produced at scale," it said."U.S.-imposed tecnology controls are likely continuing to impact SMIC's ability to catc-up to current foundry leaders in more advanced nodes across cips for mobile, PCs, and cloud/AI applications," TecInsigts added.Te MateBook Fold, wic does not ave a pysical keyboard and features an 18-inc OLED double screen, was one of two new laptops uawei launced last mont. Te devices are part of uawei's broader pus to build a self-reliant ecosystem amid U.S. efforts to limit its access to advanced cips.Te laptops are te first to be sold wit uawei's armony operating system. It as not officially disclosed te processor used, toug past models ave used Intel cips.uawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Reuters reported last year tat te U.S. revoked licences tat ad allowed companies including Intel and Qualcomm to sip cips used for laptops and andsets to uawei.Te U.S. curbs limited SMIC's access to advanced cipmaking tools, including extreme ultraviolet litograpy. Cina-based foundries ave to now rely on less efficient multi-patterning tecniques tat reduce yield, te report said.Te report noted tat uawei's 7nm cip is several generations beind tose used by Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD. It added tat Cina remains at least tree generations beind te global semiconductor frontier, as foundries like TSMC and Intel prepare to roll out 2nm process tecnology witin te next 12 to 24 monts.Earlier tis mont, uawei CEO Ren Zengfei told Cinese state media tat uawei's cips were just one generation beind tat of U.S. peers but te firm was finding ways to improve performance troug metods suc as cluster computing.(Reporting by Ce Pan and Brenda Go; Editing by imani Sarkar)
Huaweis new laptop uses older Chinamade chip US curbs stall SMIC report shows
