TSMC Has Enabled Smartphone SoCs To Approach 5GHz Frequencies Thanks To Advanced Lithography; Huawei The Biggest Loser In All Of This
Wccftech • • general
Key Points:
- Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek have significantly advanced smartphone chipset technology by extending their partnerships with TSMC, enabling SoCs to reach unprecedented clock speeds of up to 5.00GHz later this year.
- Huawei lags behind due to U.S. trade sanctions restricting access to TSMC’s cutting-edge foundry technology, forcing reliance on SMIC’s older 7nm process without EUV lithography, limiting Kirin chipsets to below 3.00GHz.
- Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 already operates at 4.61GHz, with the Gen 6 Pro rumored to hit 5.00GHz, while MediaTek’s Dimensity 9600 Pro and Apple’s A19 Pro also show significant clock speed improvements, boosting single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.
- Huawei’s delayed shift to self-reliance and SMIC’s technological constraints underscore the critical impact of foundry capabilities on chipset performance, highlighting a stark technological gap with rivals.
- Despite thermal challenges at higher clock speeds, advanced cooling solutions like vapor chambers and miniature fans help maintain performance in the latest chipsets during sustained workloads.
