HiSilicon, the semiconductor arm of Huawei, has officially announced the world’s first flagship SoC with built-in 5G prowess – Kirin 990 5G. Huawei took the veil off the successor to Kirin 980 chipset today at IFA 2019 event in Berlin. By the way, there is a 4G variant without this integration and the 5G suffix in its name.
Regardless, 5G variant is the showstopper of the duo, boasting download speeds of up to 2.3Gbps and upload speeds of 1.25Gbps. It incorporates the first full-band frequency Balong 5G modem, unlike Kirin 980 which had the Balong 5000 modem as a discrete component.
Interestingly, the Chinese tech titan has already confirmed that the Mate 30 Pro will ship with Kirin 990. The Mate 30 series is scheduled for a September 19 launch. Huawei says the presence of Kirin 990 5G edition within the upcoming phones is subject to 5G reach in a particular market.
Here are the specs for starters –
Huawei Kirin 990 5G vs Kirin 990 vs Kirin 980
| Models | Krin 990 5G | Kirin 990 4G | Kirin 980 |
| CPU | 2x Cortex A76 @2.86G
2x Cortex A76 @2.36G 4x Cortex A55 @1.95G |
2x Cortex A76 @2.86G
2x Cortex A76 @2.09G 4x Cortex A55 @1.86G |
4x Cortex A76 @2.60G
4x Cortex A55 @1.80G |
| GPU | 16xG76 @700M | 16xG76 @700M | 10xG76 @750M |
| NPU | 2 + 1 Da Vinci | 1 + 1 Da Vinci | 2 Cambricon |
| Modem | Balong 5G | 4G | 4G |
| DRAM | LPDDR4-4266 | LPDDR4-4266 | LPDDR4-4266 |
| Die Size | >100 mm2 | ~90 mm2 | 74.13 mm2 |
| Transistor | 10.3b | ~8.0b | 6.9b |
Kirin 990 5G highlights
True to its moniker, Sub-6 GHz 5G is deeply woven into both SA and NSA architectures. It is engineered using EUV on TSMC’s latest 7+ manufacturing process. This facilitates a smaller die size, which is still larger than the 4G chip and Kirin 980.
It leads in terms of the Transistor count at around 10.3 billion, followed by the 990 4G’s 8 billion and 6.9 billion value of Kirin 980.
HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G is the most powerful CPU ever!
⬆️Single-Core up 10%
⬆️Multi-Core performance up 9%
🔋Best-in-class CPU power efficiency so you can do more for longer 🎮🎥🎵#RethinkEvolution #HuaweiIFA2019 #IFA19 pic.twitter.com/vp3Edtkdfq— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 6, 2019
Coming to the CPU configuration, there are two high-frequency A76 cores, accompanied with two medium frequency A76 cores, and four A55 efficiency cores. They differ from each other in terms of clock speed and power. But between them and the predecessor, a big shuffle has happened in the core structure itself.
Cortex A76 cores are backed by 512 kB L2 cache and 128 kB cache in case of the Cortex A55. Huawei claims to have tweaked the core architecture for better memory latency to CPU, GPU, and NPU. This feature is christened as ‘SmartCache’.
HUAWEI Kirin 990 Series represents a new leap forward in gaming graphics and industry-leading performance.
With improved energy efficiency, you can play harder for longer 🎮#RethinkEvolution #HuaweiIFA2019 #IFA19 pic.twitter.com/Z30h5ulNIi
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 6, 2019
Next up in the graphics department, we see a bump in a 16-core Mali-G76 from a 10-core Mali-G76 in the Kirin 980. Huawei reveals this has a 6-percent performance peak and 20-percent power-efficiency.
The WORLD’S FIRST Da Vinci Architecture NPU, with enhanced #AI capabilities 🤩#RethinkEvolution #HuaweiIFA2019 #IFA19 pic.twitter.com/76Xud3Hr7N
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 6, 2019
And while we underline 5G capability, AI is also allegedly better in this new chipset. Huawei has replaced Cambricon NPU hardware design with its proprietary Da Vinci architecture. if you’d recall, the Kirin 810, unveiled earlier this year also helmed the same Da Vinci design.
HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G chipset delivers the best mobile #AI performance.
⬆️ AI performance is now 12x more powerful – in just two years! #RethinkEvolution #HuaweiIFA2019 #IFA19 pic.twitter.com/GAj0b8s2wS
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 6, 2019
Although the chip is adept in handling both 4G and 5G network, a non-5G chip is highly likely, in dint of a distant 5G mainstream adoption in Huawei’s markets. This also means the 5G Huawei phones will probably wield better hardware.
