Huawei launched a new chipset for using in servers at a time when China is pushing to increase the chip-making capabilities in the country and to cut its heavy dependence on imports
Chinese multinational conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which specialises in telecom equipment and consumer electronics, is seeking new channels for growth amidst increased scrutiny in some countries for its equipment business, regarding concerns over data security.
It is alleged by the US and some other countries that the Chinese government has influence over Huawei. However, the company has repeatedly denied such allegations.
Huawei, which generates a major chunk of its revenues from telecom equipment and smartphones, is now seeking other growth avenues such as in enterprise services and cloud computing.
The company launched a new chipset for using in servers at a time when China is pushing to increase the chip-making capabilities in the country and to cut its heavy dependence on imports, mainly from the US.
Reducing dependence on imports
In addition, Chinese companies are seeking to reduce the impact of a trade war between the US and China, with the countries slapping tariffs on each other’s imports.
The latest launch of Kunpeng 920 chipset, designed by Huawei’s arm HiSilicon, is going to enhance its credentials as a designer of semiconductor.
The company is already manufacturing the Kirin series of chips for its smartphones and chipsets for artificial intelligence (AI) computing under the Ascend series.
The Kunpeng 920 is a 7 nanometre chipset with 64-core central processing unit (CPU) that would give higher computing performance for the data centres and low power consumption. The latest product is based on the architecture of ARM – chip design company owned by SoftBank Group.
Huawei also introduced its TaiShan series of servers which are powered by the latest chipset. These servers are designed for distributed storage, big data and ARM native applications.
The Shenzhen-based company internally procures 54 per cent of modem chips in its own devices, 22 per cent sourced from Qualcomm and the remaining from elsewhere.
