On May 22nd, local time, it was reported that ARM, a British semiconductor IP provider, would stop doing business with Huawei and its subsidiaries.
ARM instructs employees not to "provide support, supply technology (software, code or other updates) and hold technical discussions" to Huawei, Hisilicon or any other relevant entities.
The report pointed out that although Huawei and Hisilicon can still continue to use and produce existing smart phone chips, such as Kirin 980(ARM sources said that the upcoming Kirin 985 is not expected to be affected), they can no longer seek relevant help from ARM.
An insurmountable obstacle
"ARM is the foundation of Huawei's smart phone chip design, so this is an insurmountable obstacle for Huawei." Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight, a market research firm, said.
According to the data of 20 17 Softbank World Congress, about 99% of the smartphones in the world are using ARM chip architecture. For mobile phone manufacturers with chip design capabilities, ARM will always be an unavoidable name.
Apple's A series, Samsung's Exynos, Qualcomm's Snapdragon series and Huawei's Kirin chip are all redesigned on the basis of ARM architecture (instruction set).
The premise is that ARM has authorized IP to these vendors. Arm usually charges a one-time technology licensing fee and patent fee.
In other words, Huawei Hisilicon does not have all the chip design capabilities. Hisilicon is a fabless chip manufacturer. It obtained the blueprint of chip design from ARM, designed it, and finally manufactured it by foundry such as TSMC.
Manufacturers who have the ability to master all links from design to manufacturing, packaging and testing, and put them into the consumer market are called "integrated equipment manufacturers" (IDM), such as Intel.
In June 5438+10, Huawei obtained the permanent license of the ARM instruction set ARMv8, but the license was limited to this model architecture. If ARM and Huawei stop business, Huawei will not be able to obtain the latest and most advanced ARM architecture authorization for its future chip design.
Double dilemma
On May 20, local time, Google suspended Huawei-related business, and then major chip manufacturers in the United States frozen their supply agreements with Huawei.
Although 90 days is a "truce", an ARM source said that employees have not received any notice that they can cooperate with Huawei and its subsidiaries again, even temporarily. At present, Micron, Skyworks and Qorvo provide storage and network components for some Huawei mobile phones.
In addition, Microsoft deleted the list of Huawei laptops from the Microsoft online store last weekend, and even people couldn't find any Huawei hardware devices in the Microsoft store.
The Verge believes that the 90-day extension may not apply to the Windows license of notebook computers. Microsoft refused to respond to some media.
Bad news also came from Github, an open source community owned by Microsoft. The world's largest open source code hosting platform wrote impressively in official website that "GitHub.com, GitHub Enterprise Server and the information you upload to any product may be subject to US export control laws, including the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR)." Aroused people's nervous nerves. Huawei has to face the double dilemma of "soft" and "hard".
Two-way breakthrough
In March this year, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, said in an interview with the German media Le Monde: "Huawei has indeed prepared an operating system independently developed, but this system is in case it is impossible to use Plan B of Android or Windows in the future. Huawei is still more willing to cooperate with the ecosystems of Google and Microsoft. "
On the evening of May 2 1, Yu Chengdong further revealed that Huawei's self-developed system was listed as early as this autumn. He said that Huawei's OS has opened up mobile phones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars and smart wear, and is also compatible with all Android applications and all Web applications.
In addition, before the ban, Huawei has reserved enough chips and other important components to maintain its business operation for at least three months. The source also said that Huawei began to "prepare for a rainy day" from the middle of 20 18 at the latest, while designing its own chips and hoarding components.
Huawei issued a relatively optimistic response to the "soft and hard blockade". However, this "ban" from ARM will have a greater impact on Huawei.
Lee Ratliff, an analyst at IHS Markit, a global information consulting company, commented that "not only Huawei, but every semiconductor company in the world will be affected". He also said, "They can't easily replace these components with new internal designs because China's semiconductor industry has just started."
Comments:
Any blockade can be bypassed, but only the arm blockade makes Huawei feel sore. This is the design standard of chips all over the world. Without ARM, there would be no development of mobile devices.
It is impossible for Huawei to become an integrated design manufacturer from design and development to production and packaging like Intel in the short term, but it does not necessarily happen overnight, but depends on the strength of the whole country and the corresponding market. At this level, Huawei has gone a long way.