News on China's scientific and technological development.

All China needs is an even and fair playing field to surpass. Which is why they are using every smear and effort to denounce and hinder China from having an even and fair playing field. China is competitive? Lock it out from markets and ban it. Call them thieves. No evidence just media rumbles and our dumb racists and nationalists will let their egos take their thoughts where we want them!

It is an ungodly evil that Chinese people find themselves against. One that's managed to pollute even the minds of many Chinese themselves by weaponising the blunders of a past era. We should all struggle against it even if it is a futile struggle, just to be on the right side of it. So it's a shame and pity so many Chinese still glorify and support American products even in the midst of a trade war with the US. Even worse, many slaves agreeing with the slaver. They don't realise they are the useful idiots soon to be forsaken once the main competitors are gone. These muppets are calling BLM a Communist movement and terror movement etc... nope, it's your karma reconciling your past crimes.

ansy1968 said:

hi Skywatcher

your prognosis is correct, Huawei will use other 5nm chips for its 5G phone and its not Qualcomm.

The rational in Huawei sanction is to kill Hisilicon and force it to buy American chip. It backfire badly, instead there is a cooperation between Huawei and other Taiwanese tech company like Mediatek to use its chips instead.


Huawei will be MediaTek's biggest customer for chips next year, report says
2020-07-08 12:22:39 GMT+8 | cnTechPost

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Due to the US ban, Huawei's chip-making arm Hisilicon could not use US devices to mass-produced chips. But Huawei had already had a backup plan with its smartphones beginning to adopt MediaTek mobile phone chips in large numbers.

Since 2020, seven Huawei smartphones have adopted MediaTek's Helio 4G chip or Dimensity 5G chip.

Taiwan's Business Times reported on July 7 that Huawei's new 5G phones, which are expected to be launched in the second half of the year, will also use the MediaTek solution.
Hisilicon's Kirin 1020 chip using TSMC's 5nm process is expected to grab the 120-day grace period to ship and is enough for 8.5 to 9 million 5G flagship Mate 40 series in late 2020. But after the grace period Hisilicon is no longer able to mass produce any chips of its own design.
According to the report, Huawei has shown little interest in Qualcomm's phone chips, and in 2021 it will accelerate the introduction of MediaTek 5G mobile phone chips and is expected to become MediaTek's largest customer.


Huawei originally commissioned TSMC 5nm foundry Kirin 1020 mobile phone chip, because the ban has been partially completed before the release of the photomask process, so can still rush to ship within the 120-day grace period.
Analysts said out that Hisilicon will be able to ship about 20,000 Kirin 1020 wafers in August and September and that can still support 8.5 million to 9 million Mate 40 phones shipping.

In fact, Huawei has had seven phones using MediaTek solutions since 2020, including Enjoy 10e, Honor Play 9A, Enjoy Z, Enjoy 20 Pro, Honor Play 4, Honor 30 Lite, Honor X10 Max.
Huawei will accelerate the adoption of MediaTek 5G mobile phone chips in the second half of the year, and in 2021 will launch a number of new handsets equipped with MediaTek 5G chips, the report said.

Click to expand...

does MediaTek use any US equipment/software etc, if so it might not end up well for Huawei

s002wjh said:

does MediaTek use any US equipment/software etc, if so it might not end up well for Huawei

Click to expand...

As long as Huawei becomes another Smartphone maker, US will not say anything.

localizer said:

As long as Huawei becomes another Smartphone maker, US will not say anything.

Click to expand...

but huawei is not just another smartphone maker, unless its already given up 5g and telecom?

ansy1968 said:

China investment policy for EV is bearing fruit, not all will survive but within 5 years hopefully there will be a Chinese Tesla that will dominate.

From cnTechPost

China's saw 20,000 new energy vehicle-related company registrations in Q2
2020-07-08 20:45:49 GMT+8 | cnTechPost

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Domestic and foreign car companies, including BYD, Volkswagen, Toyota and others, have been building new energy vehicle projects in China. So how many new energy car companies are there in China?
According to data provider Qichacha, China added 47,000 new new energy vehicle-related companies in 2019 and the current total stood at 192,000.

In the second quarter of this year, the number of registrations reached 20,000, up 122.2% from the previous quarter. There were 65,000 companies with registered capital of 10 million or more, accounting for 34% of the total.
In the last decade of industry development, the number of registrations began to jump significantly around 2014. 2018 reached its peak with new registrations of 49,000.

In 2019, the number of new registrations reached 47,000, more than 23 times the number of 2010 registrations.
Geographically, Shanghai was the only municipality to make the top 10 list, with 10,000 companies.

Guangdong province ranked first with 23,000 companies, followed by Shandong and Jiangsu in the provincial rankings.

Jiangsu's growth this year is particularly impressive, with 3,277 new energy vehicle companies registered from January to June 2020. The number of companies was up 108.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

Of the 16,000 companies in Jiangsu Province, Suzhou accounted for the largest share with 3,251, followed by Nanjing with 2,939.
From January to June 2020, there were 29,000 new energy vehicle-related company registrations in China, up from the same period in 2019 up 26.1%. The figure for the second quarter was 20,000, up 122.2% from the first quarter.
In terms of registered capital, there are 38,000 companies with registered capital of less than 1 million, accounting for 20% of the total registrations.
There are 57,000 companies with registered capital between 1-5 million, accounting for 30 per cent of the total registrations. In addition, companies with a registered capital of more than 10 million account for 34% of the total.

Click to expand...

I suppose "new energy vehicle-related companies" include companies that do manufacturing of the components of the new energy vehicle, not just the manufacturing of the whole vehicle. Possibly the number 192,000 may also include trading companies.

From JSCh (PAKISTAN DEFENSE FORUM)

China’s first 100% homegrown memory chips in mass production in Shenzhen
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/7/9 13:31:27


An employee showcases a semiconductor integrated circuit at an industry expo on October 31. Photo: VCG

The first 100 percent homegrown memory chips are currently in mass production in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, breaking the foreign technology monopoly and serving as an alternative to imported products.

Powev Electronic Technology Co, a high-tech storage packaging and testing firm based in Shenzhen, is now producing memory chips and Solid-state drives (SSDs) on a mass scale, according to the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily on Thursday.

The company's chip lineup includes the first such products to be wholly domestically produced, with each integrated circuit and all production processes completed in China.

"The lineup was developed to solve a bottleneck faced by the domestic IC industry," said Zhang Zhe, the company's deputy general manager.

The company said the chips and SSDs are used in personal computers and servers, and at least three domestic PC companies have incorporated the products in their offerings.

The Shenzhen Special Zone Daily report said that since the two products were first marketed in April and May, sales were brisk and consumer feedback was positive.

Following tests, a domestic modular firm and a PC firm said the products are "world-leading" in performance and can be used to substitute imported products, the report said, citing the company.

On China's JD.com e-commerce marketplace, the Global Times found consumer comments were generally positive with regard to the performance of the chips, with some reviewers directly expressing their favor of fully homegrown memory chips.

It was reported that the company's business volume increased to 350 million yuan ($50 million) in 2019, up from 2018's 20 million yuan.

Japan had benefited greatly from China -US trade war.

From Nan Yang (PAKISTAN DEFENSE FORUM)

Tokyo Electron shares soar due to US restrictions
Company says US restrictions on exports to China won’t affect its business
By JULY 9, 2020

In what may appear in hindsight as a fortuitous event in view of the current worldwide move away from dependence on US chipmaking machinery, Tokyo Electron chairman and president Tetsuro Higashi is pictured in 2015 announcing cancellation of a merger with US rival Applied Materials. The two companies agreed to cancel after competition regulators rejected the multi-billion dollar deal. Photo: AFP / JIJI Press

The share price of Tokyo Electron (TEL), Japan’s leading provider of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, soared after the US Commerce Department banned foreign foundries’ chip sales to Huawei and other Chinese companies if they are made with American machines.

Tokyo Electron, with $11 billion in revenue, is among the companies best placed to capitalize on the move away from dependence on the US.

China is now TEL’s biggest market, and company executives told investors last week that it will remain so. The Commerce Department announced May 15 that it would put the extraterritorial sales ban in place within 120 days. Detailed rules are expected July 15.

Huawei, China’s leading telecom equipment manufacturer, designs its own chips for smartphones (the Kirin series of chipset) and artificial intelligence processors (the Ascend series), but fabricates them at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, the world’s largest and most advanced chip foundry.

The new American export controls will prevent TSMC from selling to Huawei. Domestic Chinese foundries like SMIC can produce older-generation chips, but not the densest and most energy efficient chips that power Huawei and ZTE high end smartphones.

The United States does not have a monopoly in any of the ten stages of chip production, although Applied Materials, LAM Research and other American firms are market leaders in several areas. Tokyo Electron offers equipment for six of the ten stages.

The Dutch firm ASML dominates Extreme Ultra-Violet Lithography, the standard process for engraving top-of-the line five- and seven-nanometer chips. The Dutch government under pressure from Washington has prevented ASML from selling to Chinese chipmakers.

China became Tokyo Electron’s largest market in 2019, and China’s crash program to build domestic chip-making capacity will boost the firm’s sales during 2020.



In a , Tokyo Electron told investors that the US restrictions on exports to China won’t affect its business.

Q: What are the current and medium- to long-term implications of the US further restricting exports to China?

A: Although we cannot comment on the impact on individual customers, we thoroughly investigated the various effects known at present, including the effects of Covid-19, and we announced that the WFE [wafer fabrication equipment] market would grow by about 10% in CY2020…. In addition to IOT [internet of things], AI and 5G, ICT [information and communication technology] is being widely implemented as we work towards a new normal, and semiconductors have taken on additional importance, with a need for higher performance. Capital investments can be expected to continue to take place somewhere in the world and the WFE market to continue to grow. We believe it is important that we continue to be a world leader in terms of our capacity for technological innovation.

Q: Have there been any cancellations of already-placed orders or delays in customer investment due to the United States’ strengthening of its restrictions on exports to China?

A: here has been nothing of note along these lines.

Q: Have there been any changes in investment trends at Chinese local manufacturers due to the strengthening of US restrictions on exports to China? Has investment increased since the beginning of CY2020?

A: We do not foresee any significant changes in the investment plans of our Chinese local customers this year. We will continue to keep an eye on such effects next year and beyond.

Industry sources reported in May that Samsung, the second-largest chip fabricator, had built a complete production line without US equipment. Samsung has the capacity to replace TSMC as Huawei’s chip fabricator, and between the two companies reportedly are continuing. China meanwhile will try to accelerate its program for domestic chip production, apparently with substantial help from Japan.

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From cnTechPost

Huawei HiSilicon ranks 2nd in Q1 smartphone processor revenue
2020-07-09 20:03:31 GMT+8 | cnTechPost
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Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Apple, Samsung and MediaTek are the top five vendors in terms of application processor (AP) revenue share, according to Strategy Analytics.
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global smartphone application processor market revenue in the first quarter grew 6% to $4.7 billion.

Qualcomm continues its leadership in the smartphone AP market with a 40 percent revenue share, followed by HiSilicon's 20 percent and Apple's 15 percent.


Strategy Analytics says Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765/G pioneered in 5G phones It's off to a good start in the middle and is appearing in a large number of flagship phones.
Strategy Analytics predicts that in the first quarter of 2020, 5G processors accounted for more than 20% of Qualcomm's total AP shipments.


Despite the decline in COVID-19 affected smartphone shipments, driven by higher average selling prices for 5G APs , the smartphone AP market still has significant growth in terms of revenue.
Strategy Analytics believes that almost all major AP vendors have now shifted their focus to the 5G on and that 5G smartphone APs will drive revenue growth in the second half of 2020.

ansy1968 said:

Cooperation is the key, now you see,the aftermath of US sanction. The only problem is who will produce the chips?

From CnTecHPost

Chinese firm develops ultra-small 5G communication module
2020-07-03 18:40:17 GMT+8 | cnTechPost

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A Chinese company has developed the first China-made ultra-small 5G communication module, which can be widely used in smart industry, smart energy, industrial robots, drones, and other fields.
The AI-NR11, Developed by Changhong's subsidiary Sichuan AI-Link, is especially suitable for scenarios where the module size is required, such as ultra-small cameras and precision measuring instruments.

This is another breakthrough after the world's first 5G industrial internet module (AI-NR10) rolled off the assembly line at Changhong.

Both the AI-NR11 and AI-NR10 are designed using Shanghai HiSilicon's 5G module middleware solution, supporting 5G/4G/3G network standards and both SA and NSA networking methods.
It can achieve download speeds of up to 4.6Gbps and upload speeds of up to 1.2Gbps.
The AI-NR11 5G module is designed in a standard M.2 package and is only 5mm wider than a 1 yuan coin.

It adopts four antennas instead of eight antennas and uses the antenna polling SRS function to intelligently and quickly select the optimal antenna solution to improve the Internet speed experience.

According to Sichuan AI-Link's technical staff, its team consists of engineers who have been engaged in communication product design for more than 10 years and have rich experience in communication module development and profound design capabilities.

It took less than five months from the launch of the world's first 5G industrial Internet module to the successful development of the module.

In March, AI-Link and HiSilicon signed the "5G world's first license" cooperation agreement to accelerate the 5G layout.
Sichuan AI-Link has a production capacity of 12 million modules per month and has provided connection service for 300 million IOT terminal products for domestic and foreign mainstream enterprises.

Click to expand...

Wow that was fast !!!

from cnTechPost

China's first ultra-small 5G communication module put into commercial use
2020-07-09 19:45:42 GMT+8 | cnTechPost
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China's first ultra-small 5G communication module, the AI-NR11, rolls off assembly line at Changhong's Subsidiary Sichuan AI-Link, marking the 5G module's entry into commercial phase.

The 5G module will be widely used in smart industry, smart energy, industrial robotics, healthcare, video security, drones and other fields. The AI-NR11 5G module is designed to meet the stringent size requirements of ultra-small cameras and precision measuring instruments.

The AI-NR11 5G module is in a standard M.2 package and is only 5 mm wider than a 1 yuan coin, the same size as a 4G module.

The module is designed with four antennas and uses SRS technology to quickly and intelligently select the optimal antenna solution to effectively enhance Internet access.
In February this year, 5G industrial internet, 5G video, 5G intelligent transportation and other professional modules were launched at the Sichuan AI- Link.
Among them, the world's first 5G industrial Internet module can be widely used in 5G industrial production line, industrial Internet of things, industrial automation control, industrial automation control, and industrial automation control. Logistics tracking, industrial AR, AGV trolley and other industrial intelligent manufacturing fields.

At present, Sichuan AI-Link has a production capacity of 12 million modules per month.

Its David vs Goliath, just landing in third place within 5 years is good enough.

from cnTechPost

How big is the gap between SMIC and TSMC?
2020-07-09 20:45:35 GMT+8 | cnTechPost
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As a leading Chinese foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) has been doing its best to catch up with TSMC.

This year, SMIC has significantly narrowed the gap with TSMC in its main business.

At the beginning of the year, SMIC beat TSMC to win orders from Huawei HiSilicon for 14nm FinFET process chips.
So what is the current gap between SMIC and TSMC? CITIC Securities has answered in a research note.
In terms of chip manufacturing process level, TSMC started mass production of 5nm products this year, which is the highest level in the industry.


In the 7nm and 10nm process areas, there are also two headline companies, Intel and Samsung Electronics.
SMIC is one of the major players, with Gershon (USA) as the remaining player. (GlobalFoundries) and Taiwan-based UMC.

In China, SMIC is the only wafer maker mass producing 14nm wafers, about 4 years behind TSMC.
Based on 2019 global sales, TSMC and Samsung Electronics are the top tier companies. TSMC's market share is close to 50%, well ahead of Samsung (18%).


SMIC is in the second tier, with a market share of just 4.4%.

China Hua Hong Semiconductor is in the third echelon, with a market share of only 1.5%.
In terms of development history, TSMC's breakthrough in the global market stems from a milestone event.

In 2014, Apple began to hand over foundry orders to TSMC, thus making TSMC's market share from the previous years, the number of orders to TSMC has been reduced to 1.5 percent. Over 40% is over 50% in one fell swoop. Apple is TSMC's #1 customer.
SMIC didn't get Huawei HiSilicon until January of this year because Huawei suffered a major setback overseas. The order for the 14nm process has taken some of the markets away from TSMC.

Currently, HiSilicon is SMIC's largest customer. CITIC Securities expects that more than 80% of SMIC's 14nm wafer production this year will be supplied to HiSilicon. SMIC's revenue contribution is between 17% and 25%.
SMIC has built three 8-inch wafer fabs and four 12-inch wafer fabs.


The total capacity is 233,000 wafers/month for 8" and 108,000 wafers/month for 12". The total capacity is 476,000 wafers/month (8-inch equivalent).

TSMC plans to further expand its 8-inch capacity and advanced process capacity.
In comparison, TSMC has several times the capacity of SMIC. TSMC has 562,000 wafers/month of 8" capacity, nearly two and a half times the capacity of SMIC, and 745,000 wafers/month of 12" capacity. TSMC's advanced process revenue is seven times that of SMIC.
In terms of the contribution of different process products to the company's revenue, TSMC's advanced processes contribute significantly to the company's revenue, while SMIC's advanced processes contribute significantly to the company's revenue. The revenue structure of SMIC is relatively balanced.


According to CITIC Securities, SMIC's revenue contribution is split 50-50 between 12" and 8". 40nm and earlier nodes are maturing, and SMIC's revenue contribution is relatively balanced. Processes below 28nm are still losing money.

TSMC's 12" process contributes 88% of revenue, 16nm and below advanced processes contribute 56% of revenue, 7nm contributes about 40% of revenue, and the 28nm process is still losing money. With 35% of revenue, the advanced process has a monopoly of 80% share in the world.

The global market concentration of 8-inch products is not high, with TSMC's market share at 26% and SMIC's at 8%.
SMIC's production capacity of such products is 233,000 wafers per month, ranking third in the world after TSMC and UMC, accounting for 50% of the company's total capacity and 45% of revenue contribution. The average net profit margin is about 5%, lower than the industry average of 15%.
While 12-inch products correspond to 7nm-16nm nodes, the market concentration is high, with TSMC as the global dominant player, with an average of It has a market share of nearly 80%, is priced higher than SMIC, and contributes up to 88% of TSMC's revenue to SMIC.
In terms of financial metrics, TSMC is well ahead of its competitors, generating $35.7 billion in revenue and $11.5 billion in net income in 2019.

It is the world's largest semiconductor company by market capitalization, with a market capitalization of $300 billion.
During the same period, SMIC had revenues of $3.116 billion, a net profit of $235 million, and a total market capitalization of more than HK$230 billion.