Huawei Might Exit Smartphone Business Following U.S. Sanctions Believes Analyst - Wccftech

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Render of the Huawei Kirin 990. Image: Huawei Technologies

Trade tensions between the United States and China, compounded by the former's sanctions on Huawei Technolgies Inc. have increased over the past few months. The latest development in the arena came when the United States Department of Commerce tightened its noose around the company's ability to secure semiconductors manufactured using software and equipment originating inside the U.S. and added dozens of Huawei's affiliates located all over the globe to its infamous Entity List.

These ensure that any hope that Huawei has for securing access to leading-edge semiconductors that are vital for the company to keep up with its peers in the smartphone world is based on whether the Commerce Department chooses to grant third-party suppliers with licenses. With Taiwanese company MediaTek already having applied for this permission, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back today with his comments about the entire affair – and Kuo's take isn't for the light-hearted.

MediaTek Applies For License To Supply Huawei With Smartphone Chips

Huawei's Best-Case Scenario In Post-Sanctions Era Is To Lose Smartphone Market Share Believes Kuo

In his analysts, Kuo highlights two scenarios that Huawei should face in the aftermath of the U.S. government's latest sanctions. According to him, regardless of the company's ability to secure chips for its smartphones after September 15th, when the sanctions take effect, Huawei has two scenarios ahead of it.

In the best case, the company will end up losing market share, especially in China to its competitors who are able to provide consumers with the latest processors in their smartphones. In the worst case, Kuo believes that Huawei might be forced to exit the smartphone world altogether as it struggles to procure advanced components for its devices.

In the first case, Kuo believes that a transfer of market share, especially in China, from Huawei to its competitors will also slow down the trend of technological upgrades in the country's smartphone market.

This will be due to the fact that since Huawei will be unable to equip its phones with the latest hardware, its competitors will find little incentive to keep up with the trend of upgrades in the smartphone world believes the analyst. However, it's a line of argument that makes little sense especially since Cupertino tech giant Apple Inc's iPhones and processors and modems manufactured by Qualcomm Incorporated also have a presence in the Chinese market.

Huawei’s 45nm Chip Fabrication Line Rumored To Be Operational By Year End

Qualcomm's processors, which are also manufactured through the same 'nodes' as Huawei's chips are, have often outperformed the latter's products in benchmarks - which are tests designed to evaluate a gadget's performance. In the wake of the latest American sanctions, MediaTek has been reported to be the strongest candidate for providing Huawei with the critical components, yet even if the company does secure access to the Helio processor lineup, it is still likely to struggle when competing with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.

In addition to Apple's iPhone, smartphones from most companies owned by the BBK Group (Oppo, Realme, OnePlus and Vivo) use Qualcomm's processors and are available for purchase in China. MediaTek also sells its devices in the country, and should the company secure approval for providing Huawei with its processors, then Huawei will have to ensure that its smartphones have other key differentiating factors that make them a worthy purchase over similarly spec'd MediaTek smartphones.

As part of its efforts to develop in-house chip manufacturing, Huawei has been rumored to be looking into plans for setting up its own fabrication lines – rumors which company officials have denied. It has also stepped up efforts to recruit Chinese university graduates to beef up its research and development as it looks to operate at multiple fronts for mitigating the impact on its operations from the sanctions.

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August 31, 2020 at 09:08PM
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No HarmonyOS smartphone until 2021: Huawei CEO - Notebookcheck.net

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Deirdre O'Donnell, 2020-08-30 (Update: 2020-08-30)

I became a professional writer and editor shortly after graduation. My degrees are in biomedical sciences; however, they led to some experience in the biotech area, which convinced me of its potential to revolutionize our health, environment and lives in general. This developed into an all-consuming interest in more aspects of tech over time: I can never write enough on the latest electronics, gadgets and innovations. My other interests include imaging, astronomy, and streaming all the things. Oh, and coffee.

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August 30, 2020 at 11:15PM
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Huawei ends sports sponsor deal over Australia 'trade war' - MyMotherLode.com

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Huawei ends sports sponsor deal over Australia ‘trade war’

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Chinese telecom giant Huawei is ending its oldest major sporting sponsorship deal, saying Monday it was breaking its contract with an Australian rugby league team after nine years because of a “great trade war” between China and Australia.

Australia has barred the world’s largest maker of switching gear and major smartphone brand from involvement in crucial national communication infrastructure in recent years, while China has ratcheted up pressure for an Australian policy reversal.

“Unfortunately as everyone knows, Huawei has been caught in the middle of a great trade war and the effects on our business is greater than we expected,” Huawei Australia’s chief corporate affairs officer Jeremy Mitchell told reporters.

Huawei will end its current financial backing of the Canberra Raiders at the end of the current National Rugby League season, because of the “negative business environment” in Australia, Mitchell said. The grand final is on Oct. 25.

Huawei will continue as one of the minor sponsors, as the team searches for a replacement major sponsor.

“We would’ve loved to have stayed for another nine years or 10 years, but the business environment in Australia is very hard for a Chinese company,” Mitchell said.

The Raiders is the only team in the national competition based in the Australian capital, the center of government and national policy-making.

Last year, Huawei had renewed its sponsorship deal for two years until the end of the 2021 season.

Huawei’s landmark decision to sponsor the team in 2012 came months after the government banned the company on security grounds from involvement in the rollout of Australia’s National Broadband Network in 2011.

The sponsorship was seen as an attempt to improve Huawei’s public image in the eyes of lawmakers and senior bureaucrats who barrack for the Canberra team.

Raiders board member Dennis Richardson, a former head of the Defense Department and of the main domestic spy agency, Australian Security Intelligence Organization, had been a vocal supporter of Huawei’s sponsorship deal.

Mitchell said the government’s decision in 2018 to ban Huawei from Australia’s 5G networks had had a major economic impact.

Huawei would consider renewing its sponsorship partnership with the Raiders “if the business environment changes for us” in Australia, he said.

“The reality is we’ve gone from 1,000 staff. Next year we’ll be 100 staff. The impact of the 5G ban and the greater Australia-China relationship has had a huge flow-on effect,” Mitchell said.

“Where we had hoped our business would pick up outside of the 5G hasn’t happened,” he added.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner said the team was “very sad” to be losing its major sponsor. Neither Huawei nor the team has ever made public the value of the sponsorship.

“The Canberra Raiders and Huawei have enjoyed a fantastic partnership for nearly a decade – they have been by far our longest serving major sponsor,” Furner said.

China has made Australia lifting its ban on Huawei on essential infrastructure a condition of turning around strained bilateral relations. The diplomatic relationship has since worsened because Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of and international responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

China has blocked exports of Australian barley and beef in recent months. China has also begun an investigation into whether Australia has breached trade rules by selling wine at inappropriately low prices on the Chinese market, an allegation that Australia rejects.

Australia has annoyed China by vetoing the $430 million sale of an Australia-based diary business owned by Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co. to Chinese company China Mengniu Dairy Co.

Australia maintains it does not want a trade war with China, its most important trading partner.

“Australia is certainly not engaging in any type of war,” Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said recently. “What we want is a constructive trading relationship, one where we can work together in the areas of mutual interest.”

The Raiders have become more successful in recent years. The Raiders were runners up in last year’s premiership and are ranked fifth in the current season. They last won a premiership in 1994.

Huawei is at the center of a major dispute between Washington and Beijing over technology and security. U.S. officials say Huawei is a security risk, which the company denies, and are lobbying European and other allies to avoid its technology as they upgrade to next-generation networks.

China, meanwhile, is trying to encourage Europeans to guarantee access to their markets for Chinese telecom and technology companies.

Huawei is suffering as Washington intensifies a campaign to slam the door on access to foreign markets and components in its escalating feud with Beijing.

European and other phone carriers that bought Huawei gear despite U.S. pressure are removing it from their networks. Huawei got a flicker of good news when it passed rivals Samsung and Apple as the No. 1 smartphone brand in the quarter ending in June thanks to sales in China, but demand abroad is plunging.

Mitchell said the decision to end the Raiders’ sponsorship was solely because of Australian, rather than global, business conditions.

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

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August 31, 2020 at 10:07AM
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Closing the Book on Huawei's Global Aspirations - Council on Foreign Relations

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Connor Fairman is a research associate in the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

On August 17, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that non-U.S. companies were prohibited from selling items produced with U.S. technology to Huawei. The decision follows restrictions imposed by the Commerce Department in May against companies using U.S. technology to manufacture Huawei-designed chips, which left open the possibility for the company to purchase widely available chips designed by other companies. This latest effort has been cited by some as the “nail in the coffin” for the company, as U.S. technology is integral to multiple stages of the semiconductor supply chain, including design, manufacturing, and testing.

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Although Huawei has built up an estimated two-year reserve of U.S. chips needed for its 5G base stations and cloud computing business, it lacks a similar stockpile of components that go into their smartphones, including memory chips, camera lenses, and 5G processor chips. Less than a month ago, it appeared that the company’s access to these items was unfettered, as it inked an agreement to continue licensing patented technology for its mobile phones from San Diego-based Qualcomm in late July. Now, the language of the Commerce Department’s announcement suggests that even this deal, which would have supplied Huawei with Qualcomm technology used by most mobile phones, will be negated. Analysts predict that if Huawei runs out of the components that go into their handsets, shipments could drop by as much as 75 percent next year.

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The Commerce Department’s actions follow a multi-year U.S. campaign to exclude Huawei from several markets that it hoped to supply 5G equipment to, including those of the Five Eyes, India, and several countries in the European Union. These are some of the largest markets outside of China and will result in massive revenue loss for the company. While Huawei remains an important telecommunications gear supplier in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, many countries in these regions will likely finally forgo partnering with the company for 5G, fearful that it will not be able to supply and maintain gear for their networks under the new restrictions.

For years, the Chinese government has attempted to boost its domestic semiconductor industry, with mixed success. Despite tax incentives and multiple rounds of funding by the China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund since 2014, Chinese chipmakers are still unable to produce the chips that power high-end smartphones and 5G equipment. Estimates for how long it would take them to catch up to foreign counterparts range from three years to “generations.”

Huawei cannot afford to wait that long, and it is quickly running out of options. As it races to ensure that it receives chips ordered before the Commerce Department’s new restrictions by the September 14 deadline, it could sue the U.S. government, citing unfair treatment, as it did on multiple occasions in 2019. However, this would likely be a fruitless endeavor, as U.S. courts have generally sided with federal agencies in previous suits. The best option for the company now is to attempt to convince U.S. chipmakers to lobby on its behalf in Washington.

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Digital and Cyberspace Policy program updates on cybersecurity, digital trade, internet governance, and online privacy. Bimonthly.

After Huawei, the group most threatened by the newest restrictions is the U.S. semiconductor industry. John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, complained that they will significantly disrupt the U.S. semiconductor industry, which relies heavily on chip sales to China to fund further research and innovation in the United States. Qualcomm, which was already lobbying for the rollback of the Commerce Department’s May restrictions when the new sanctions were announced, is likely step up efforts to challenge the U.S. decision on the grounds that it would severely damage the company’s global competitive edge.

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Given that U.S. chipmakers and industry groups are unlikely to change the U.S. government’s mind and there will not be a sudden breakthrough in Chinese chipmakers’ abilities, the Commerce Department’s actions are likely the death blow against Huawei. Even its most secure markets will switch to new suppliers to prevent the inevitable disruption that will occur when its two-year stockpile of U.S.-made chips dries out. In the context of the U.S.-China tech war, the dashing of Huawei’s global aspirations is but one battle, and the United States should expect a punitive retaliation against its technology companies by the Chinese government.

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August 31, 2020 at 08:38PM
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US sanctions on Huawei spell trouble for Shenzhen’s economy - South China Morning Post

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August 31, 2020 at 06:00AM
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Huawei Fallout—Serious New China Threat Strikes At Samsung And Apple - Forbes

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From adversity comes opportunity, they say, and that thought will be weighing on the minds of Huawei execs in Shenzhen right now—because their adversity is quickly opening doors for others, and there’s no guarantee there will ever be a return to business as usual. We are still reeling from the devastating escalation in U.S. sanctions against Huawei, announced last week, but some of the ramifications are now starting to become clearer. Right now there’s no obvious escape route for China’s leading tech player, and others are circling.

Ahead of Trump’s blacklist, Huawei had overtaken Apple for global smartphone sales and was on course to overtake Samsung as well. Despite the blacklist, Huawei kept ahold of the world’s number two slot and did actually overtake Samsung in the second quarter this year, as the market reeled from the impact of coronavirus. But that will not last—the latest set of U.S. sanctions will heavily impact Huawei sales next year. But, putting Huawei to one side, Apple and Samsung now have a new China threat striking at their otherwise duopolistic dominance of global sales.

I’ve singled out Xiaomi before as the real beneficiary from Huawei’s decline in key overseas markets—especially in Europe. The domestic rival to Huawei remarkably bettered Huawei sales in Europe for the first time in the second quarter this year, growing revenues 65% as Huawei shrunk 17%. Xiaomi moved up to third place behind Samsung and Apple—Huawei dropped to fourth.

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That gloomy picture for Huawei is now much worse. In its second-quarter results, issued this week, Xiaomi may have reported modest annual revenue growth (up 3.1%), but it was all about the detail. Xiaomi’s export markets have recovered to pre-coronavirus levels, with a major boost in higher-end smartphone sales—the exact segment where it needs to unseat Huawei. According to Xiaomi, “in overseas markets, shipments of our premium smartphones with a retail price of €300 or more went up by 99.2% year-over-year.”

The manufacturer—which has built its brand in the budget segment, has been upping its game to take Huawei market share outside China, replicating its larger rival’s lower priced / higher quality strategy to tackle aspirational markets in Europe in particular. This was the battleground where Huawei made its name as an export giant. Xiaomi’s strategy is clear—become the new Huawei. Industry analysts suggest Xiaomi is now on course to become one of the top-three global smartphone makers, overtaking Apple and ultimately targeting Samsung—if it can genuinely execute a new Huawei strategy.

MORE FROM FORBESHuawei Stunned By Trump Strike-Here's What That Means For 600 Million UsersBy Zak Doffman

Those second quarter Europe numbers darkened Huawei’s celebrations on overtaking Samsung for global smartphone sales for the same quarter—a result driven by Huawei’s lock on its domestic market as Samsung recovered from the Covid-19 sales hits in other markets. It was always going to be short-lived. And that was all before Trump signalled a seismic shock to Huawei Smartphone sales from next year, denying the company access to the high-end chipsets it needs to power its flagship devices, to compete with other market-leaders.

Xiaomi has no such restrictions—and it still offers non-Chinese customers the full-fat Android experience, without the loss of Google software and services that had already hit Huawei so hard before the latest ramp-up in U.S. action.

“Our overseas business achieved robust growth against market headwinds and obtained remarkable results across key markets,” Xiaomi said in its results announcement. “Our smartphone shipments in the European market grew by 64.9% year-over-year, attaining a top three position in terms of market share for the first time.”

Of Huawei’s domestic rivals, Xiaomi was the one to recognise the staggering opportunity to fill the vacuum that Huawei would leave in overseas markets. Until this month, that was all about Google. Predicting that non-Chinese consumers would be reluctant to shift from full-fat Android to a new, Huawei alternative without their staples, Xiaomi plugged the gap. It had already proven its mettle in India, where it leads the market. It’s now picking up millions of Huawei users in Europe and elsewhere.

MORE FROM FORBESWhy Google And YouTube Are Now China's Most WantedBy Zak Doffman

Huawei’s future as a premium smartphone brand is uncertain—at least in the short to medium term. That will throw open the Chinese market and threaten Huawei’s lock. But in China, Xiaomi has Oppo and Vivo to contend with—the playing field is fairly level. Overseas, though, Xiaomi has been honing its approach. It’s nicely primed.

And so watch with interest over the next 2-3 quarters’ results—will Xiaomi continue to grow strongly in Europe and how much further will Huawei decline as its next flagship—the Mate 40—also launches absent Google and the pre-blacklist P30 gets that little bit older?

And then to next year, where at some point—perhaps fairly early—Huawei will exhaust its stockpile of chipsets, which will then heavily impact its ability to ship devices, both domestically and to export markets. If Xiaomi can position itself as the leading value for money premium device, then it has the chance to accelerate that growth and to expand its footprint into other markets. Huawei leveraged its strategy to break-up the Samsung and Apple market lock and there’s no reason Xiaomi cannot pick up where it’s larger domestic rival left off. If anything, the ground has been cleared and it will be easier this time around.

“Looking forward to the next decade,” Xiaomi told me in a statement, “we will firmly adhere to our ‘three guiding principles’ – never cease to explore and innovate, continue to offer products with strong price-to-performance ratio, and seek to make the coolest products, so as to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life.” Heavily funded R&D fueling cool products at the right price-performance-ratio—precisely what Huawei managed so successfully.

Meanwhile, we await some insight from Huawei as to what its chipset mitigation strategy is likely to be. The Huawei Developer Conference comes up next month—perhaps we will get some answers then.

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August 30, 2020 at 04:48PM
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Huawei P50: what we want to see - TechRadar

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The Huawei P40 and its siblings (the Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro Plus) are in some ways among the best phones of 2020 – they have superb cameras, plenty of power, and excellent battery lives. But they’re all significantly held back when it comes to software, as they don’t have access to Google Mobile Services.

Unfortunately, that software issue is one that probably won’t be solved for the Huawei P50 range, but it might at least be improved. It’s one of a number of things we’re wishing for from the P50 range to make the upcoming phones even better than the Huawei P40.

You’ll find our full wish list for the range further down, but before that you’ll find information on the possible release date and price, along with rumored specs and features. We haven’t heard much yet, but we’ll be adding to this article as rumors roll in, so make sure to check back often.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The successor to the flagship Huawei P40
• When is it out? Probably late March
• What will it cost? Likely upwards of £699 / AU$1,099 (around $900)

Huawei P50 release date and price

There’s no news on when the Huawei P50 will be announced but we can take a very good guess, as both the Huawei P40 and Huawei P30 were announced on March 26 of their respective years, so March 26 of next year seems very likely.

Admittedly, the Huawei P20 was announced on March 27, but around that time of year is almost certainly when we’ll see the P50 range. We’d expect the phones to then ship within two weeks of that date, if not sooner, based on past form, so you should be able to have the Huawei P50 in your hands by early April.

As for the price, that again is unknown at the time of writing, but the Huawei P40 launched for £699 / AU$1,099 (around $900), so the Huawei P50’s price might be similar.

Of course, that’s just the base model. The Huawei P40 Pro cost £899 / AU$1,599 (around $1,100) and the P40 Pro Plus was £1,299 (roughly $1,570 / AU$2,500), so expect prices to rise steeply for the Huawei P50 Pro and Huawei P50 Pro Plus. And as with the P40 range, these phones almost certainly won’t land in the US.

News and rumors

At the time of writing we haven’t really heard anything about the Huawei P50 yet, but based on past form it’s almost certainly going to use the same chipset as the Huawei Mate 40, which itself is rumored to have a new top-end chipset from the company dubbed either the Kirin 1000 or Kirin 1020.

This is rumored to be the company’s first 5nm chipset, a move which should lead to an improvement in performance, as you’d expect.

The P40 Pro has a great camera, but upgrades are likely for the P50 range (Image credit: TechRadar)

The Mate 40 is also rumored to have a ‘freeform’ camera design, which could reduce distortion in wide-angle shots. If it does have this then we wouldn’t be surprised if the P50 does too.

Beyond that we can also say that unless things change in Huawei’s relationship with the US, the Huawei P50 won’t have access to Google apps and services.

What we want to see

We don’t know much about the Huawei P50 yet but we do know what we want from it. The following things top our list.

1. Google Mobile Services

However good Huawei’s hardware is, its software is always likely to be lacking unless, or until, it regains access to Google Mobile Services (and therefore the Google Play Store and Google’s apps). This is out of Huawei’s hands, and we’re not optimistic that it will happen in time for the Huawei P50’s launch, but it’s our biggest hope for the phone.

And if that’s not realistic, then we’d at least like to see some big improvements to Huawei’s alternative app store. Currently it’s severely lacking compared to Google Play, and is even missing a number of big name apps, so we’d like to see Huawei make a real push to get more developers on board.

2. A 120Hz refresh rate on all models

Even the P40 Pro Plus only has a 90Hz refresh rate (Image credit: TechRadar)

While some phones – such as the OnePlus 8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 – have 120Hz refresh rates, the most any handset in the Huawei P40 range manages is 90Hz, and the base P40 has just a 60Hz refresh rate, which feels distinctly lacking for a high-end handset.

So for the Huawei P50 range we want the company to push the refresh rate up to at least 120Hz, and we want to see that offered across the range. If it can manage an even higher refresh rate then all the better.

3. A sharper screen

The Huawei P40 has just a FHD+ 1080 x 2340 screen, and while the Huawei P40 Pro and Pro Plus better it with 1200 x 2640 screens, that’s still not hitting the QHD+ level found on phones like the 1440 x 3200 Samsung Galaxy S20.

Given that these are high-end and in some case top-end handsets, we’d expect a competitive resolution, so we’d like to see that improved for the Huawei P50 range.

There’s no need to go overboard – at a certain point extra pixels won’t do much unless your eyes are pressed up against the screen, but matching Samsung here would be a good start. And given that even the basic Galaxy S20 has a high resolution, we’d like even the basic P50 to do so as well.

4. Proper water resistance on the base P50

The P40 is splash-resistant but nothing more (Image credit: TechRadar)

With the P40 range, Huawei has limited decent water resistance to the P40 Pro and Pro Plus. They’re both IP68 certified, which is in line with the likes of the iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and means they can withstand submersion in water. The standard Huawei P40 though has just an IP53 rating, which means it should be able to survive a splash, but not much more.

For the Huawei P50 range we want IP68 certification offered across the range, and if Huawei wants its pricier models to stand out, then how about even better water resistance for them? There aren’t many phones that you can safely take diving for instance, so maybe the Huawei P50 Pro could stand out in that way.

5. Wireless charging on all models

Wireless charging is becoming ever more common, but while it’s offered by the Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 Pro Plus, you won’t find it on the standard Huawei P40.

So with it becoming more common among high-end handsets, we’d like the standard Huawei P50 to offer it, as by the time that phone launches it will surely seem a major omission if it’s not present.

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August 30, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Huawei focuses on cloud computing to secure its survival - Financial Times

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Huawei is focusing on its budding cloud business, which still has access to US chips despite the sanctions against the company, to secure its survival.

The Chinese group’s cloud computing business, which sells computing power and storage to companies, including giving them access to AI, is far behind Alibaba and Tencent, the market leaders in China. But it is growing rapidly and in January Huawei put the unit on an equal footing with its smartphones and telecoms equipment businesses.

A person at a Chinese supplier to Huawei said the cloud business was key to Huawei stabilising in its domestic market because Beijing would increasingly support the company through public cloud contracts.

Several people involved in Huawei’s cloud business said the unit was stepping up its offerings. “We will continue to provide customers with a package of [cloud] services and products,” said a person at Huawei familiar with the strategy. “The quality of the chips in it may not be as good as before, but for the other products that are not impacted, we will offer something with a little better quality, and the customers can accept it.”

The change in focus was needed because the outlook for Huawei’s smartphone and other consumer products unit was “hopeless” in the face of a US ban that will choke off its access to mobile chips, said a person familiar with the business. The consumer unit was responsible for half of Huawei’s $122bn revenue last year.

Meanwhile industry executives and analysts said that suppliers of semiconductors needed in cloud computing were still allowed to ship to Huawei, and other components were available on the open market.

“Intel has been the supplier of the main [central processing unit] for Huawei servers as it secured a licence last year that allows it to continue to sell to Huawei,” said a semiconductor industry executive who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

After the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to a list of companies barred from doing business with US companies last year, hundreds of enterprises applied for temporary licences exempting them. Despite rules that the US government imposed in May and on August 17 prohibiting the sale of any chip designed or manufactured using US technology or equipment in any transaction involving Huawei, those licences remain in force.

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“The rule has no effect on licences issued prior to Aug 17,” a Department of Commerce official told the Financial Times. “The scope of the rule did not change for those previously issued licences.”

Last year, most companies applying for licences were focused on chip design and software because the industry did not expect Washington to crack down on the entire supply chain, including manufacturing.

Industry experts said that for those Huawei suppliers, the exemption had become meaningless because the latest rule bars the companies that manufacture the chips from shipping to Huawei. But some chipmakers with fabrication plants of their own got licensed. The industry executive and two analysts said Intel was among them.

The Department of Commerce does not publicise which companies receive licences. Intel confirmed it has licences to ship to Huawei.

If Intel CPUs remain available, Huawei could use them to replace the Kunpeng and Ascend, its cloud CPUs developed in-house based on designs from British chip company ARM which can no longer be manufactured because of the recent bans.

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Other electronic parts including integrated circuits for power management, memory chips and passive components could be obtained through traders, analysts said. “Channels such as WPG have those on offer,” said YC Yao, a chip analyst at Trendforce, the industry research firm, referring to Asia’s largest distributor of semiconductor components. “I do not think that such transactions could be monitored to the extent that you could prevent sales to a particular end-customer such as Huawei.”

Additional reporting by Richard Waters in San Francisco

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August 30, 2020 at 11:17AM
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Here's how Huawei and other Chinese firms could access crucial CPU technology without restrictions - TechRadar

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Throughout its history, MIPS has changed hands and IPOed more than once. But, in a surprising turn of events, it has ended up under control of a Chinese company.

As a result, Chinese companies may now license crucial processor architecture IP from the company and develop their SoCs for various purposes without any restrictions imposed by the U.S.

Restrictions applied

Starting from 2018, the US government tightened restrictions on direct Chinese investments in the American startups in a bid not to let the Chinese control new technologies.

In addition, select Chinese companies — most notably Huawei Technologies and its subsidiaries — were included in the US Department of Commerce Entity List, which required them to obtain a special license to access technologies developed in the US in general. 

This prevented Huawei and some others from working with multiple partners in the country. But apparently, as a result of a series of acquisitions and licensing agreements, the Chinese high-tech companies can still access technologies developed by MIPS, one of the oldest CPU developers from California.

MIPS changes hands

MIPS Computer Systems was established in the early 1980s by a group of scientists from Stanford University, who worked on a project called Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages (MIPS).

The researchers successfully developed the MIPS architecture and various cores on its base and then licensed their technologies to other companies willing to design actual CPUs powered by MIPS.

The company was quite successful from 1980s to 1992, when it was acquired by Silicon Graphics Inc to develop in-house CPUs and offer higher performance than it was possible with off-the-shelf offerings from competitors.

SGI spun off MIPS in 1998, the company went public and continued with its licensing business model. While not as successful as Arm, MIPS licensed its cores to a wide range of companies, creating chips for an equally wide range of applications. 

Some time in 2013, Imagination Technologies decided that, in a bid to be competitive with Arm, it needed CPU IP in addition to GPU IP, so it took over MIPS, which is when the turbulence began for the processor company. In early 2017, Apple announced plans to stop using Imagination’s GPU IP within two years and, while not many details were revealed, Imagination’s stock plummeted and the board decided to sell the company to a private investor. 

China-backed Canyon Bridge acquired ImgTec in late 2017, but in a bid not to provoke the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an organization that reviews foreign investments, MIPS was spun off from ImgTec before the deal was sealed.  

China gets MIPS’s technologies 

In September 2017, MIPS was taken over by Tallwood Venture Capital controlled by Diosdado P. Banatao, who earlier co-founded Mostron, Chips and Technologies, and S3 Graphics. 

Mr. Banatao transferred MIPS ownership to Wave Computing in mid-2018, which is co-owned by Banatao and Alibaba. Later, Wave Computing transferred MIPS licensing rights to a Samoan-registered company called Prestige Century Investment as a result of insolvency proceedings. Prestige Century Investments happens to be a 100% owner of CIP United, a China-registered company.  

CIP United now controls all MIPS licensing rights for all customers in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and has the ability to design new derivative technologies based on the MIPS architecture, according to Reuters, which cites four sources. Among others, Huawei Technologies is a licensee of CIP and MIPS. 

But what about software and manufacturing? 

Since CIP United now controls IP developed by MIPS (albeit, only in China), its customers can access it and develop SoCs for various applications starting from sensors and SSD controllers and going all the way to self-driving cars and supercomputer-class CPUs. However, there are two challenges for adopters of the MIPS architecture: software support and production. 

The MIPS architecture is not supported by Google’s Android operating system at the same level as Arm’s architectures. To that end, MIPS licensees either have to rely on other OSes or tailor open-source Android for their needs. For many MIPS licensees, lack of Android support is not a problem since they develop chips for applications that use different OSes. In fact, many of MIPS-powered devices use proprietary software anyway.

Meanwhile, a technology giant like Huawei has resources to advanced open-source Android in accordance with their needs.

But Huawei has a different problem. It cannot work with any contract maker of semiconductors that use technologies developed in the USA, which means all foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in Taiwan as well as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC) in China. 

Being unable to access manufacturing makes Huawei’s chip design prowess useless. What will be interesting is whether the company finds a workaround for this conundrum too.  

Made in China 2025 

Huawei is one of the largest high-tech companies in China, but for the country’s government the ‘Made in China 2025’ plan is considerably more important than a single company, since it represents a new multi-billion industry that does not depend on foreign investments or technologies.

The number of Chinese chip designers skyrocketed from 736 in 2015 to 1,780 in 2017. Many of these companies need CPU IP and some may not be inclined to use Arm. For them, MIPS and RISC-V architectures are two natural choices and MIPS has an edge over RISC-V right now. 

MIPS does have off-the-shelf high-performance CPU cores comparable to Arm’s Cortex-A70-series or Neoverse, but it is possible to use the MIPS architecture to build something powerful enough for servers. For example, China’s Loongson Technology develops MIPS64 CPUs for client devices and servers and there are also Green500 supercomputers based on MIPS CPUs. 

Unrestricted access to MIPS’s CPU and other IP seems to be crucially important not only for select companies, but the whole Made in China 2025 plan.

Sources: Reuters, Electronics Weekly

The Link Lonk


August 30, 2020 at 02:00PM
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Huawei’s Radical New Device Is Definitely Not What You Expected - Forbes

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So, you can file this under stories I didn’t expect to be writing this week. Just as Huawei prepares for the launch of its latest flagship device—the Mate 40, while fighting the newly lit and devastating fire of Trump’s latest supply chain sanctions, reports have emerged that the latest device from the Shenzhen tech giant is so smart it can’t be lost. In fact, if you call out it will actually come and find you.

Yes, Huawei it seems is now playing in the robotic dog business. You’ll remember all the palaver a few months ago, when Boston Dynamics’ Spot the Dog was seen on coronavirus patrol in a public park in Singapore, reminding people to socially distance. Well, now Huawei has its own version of Spot, and it seems to have its own set of nifty, robotic tricks.

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The dog was “spotted” in a physical Huawei store in China and reported by a blogger. I’m told it was actually put together by one of Huawei’s “ecosystem partners,” rather than the company itself, but it’s full of Huawei wizardry. This isn’t part of the company’s Consumer Business Group, but has been co-developed with one of Huawei’s labs, one with enterprise applications in mind.

According to the reports, the dog is the latest machine to “make use of Huawei’s AI technology, which includes leading-edge AI technology exploration, mature AI technology application, and full-scenario AI technology solutions.” It’s unclear what AI chipset the dog is carrying around, though, and whether that’s impacted by the new U.S. ban.

The dog is full of tricks, “designed in such a way that it is very flexible and can even perform forward somersaults.” There is no word yet from Shenzhen as to why an enterprise robotic dog would need to perform somersaults, but I’ll update the story if I find out.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot is designed as a security and enterprise device, “a nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors. Built to be a rugged and customizable platform, Spot has an industry track record in remote operation and autonomous sensing.”

In short, Spot is designed to travel independently over varying types of terrain, with a payload of multiple types of sensors—going where it might be difficult or unsafe for humans to reach, able to report back. One can assume the Huawei concept dog has the same applications in mind, and we won’t be welcoming one into our homes anytime soon, as entertaining as that might be.

Three serious takeaways from this story. First, it demonstrates the breadth of technologies under the hood at Huawei. It’s easy to forget with all the chatter about smartphones and 5G, that Huawei has a powerful enterprise business group, a full suite of cloud and AI solutions and a wide array of smart city deployments around the world. In short, a readymade market for this type of application.

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The second takeaway is all about Huawei’s vast investments into AI and an ecosystem to support real-world deployments of those technologies. The company is playing in the automotive world, albeit it says it has no actual car building ambitions, but its “seamless AI life” strategy gives you a good indication of where it sees its future. You don’t need me to tell you that AI is perhaps China’s number one tech investment priority right now, and the AI-driven tech Cold War is right at the heart of Beijing’s standoff with Washington.

Finally, though, we have to return to those sanctions. When Huawei releases its Mate 40, as trailed here by my colleague David Phelan, it will be the swan song for the company’s brilliant Kirin chipsets, designed to be the delivery mechanism for all that AI R&D. We still don’t know what Huawei plans to do to mitigate the latest restrictions, or whether China can step in to help the company survive in its current form. Until then, the future for robotic dogs as well as smartphones, tablets, PCs and other gadgets remains up in the air...

Rather like that somersaulting dog.

The Link Lonk


August 29, 2020 at 04:30PM
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Why China Will Not Save Huawei From Trump’s Devastating New Blow - Forbes

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There’s a surprise twist in the aftermath of Trump’s ramp-up of his sanctions against Huawei—China’s relative silence. A week on from the U.S. administration issuing what some analysts have described as a “death sentence,” Huawei is fast realizing that China is not about to fire a silver bullet to turn this situation around.

China denounced Trump’s latest attack as “stark bullying” and “shameful,” with a government spokesperson telling the media that “the Chinese government will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard Chinese companies' legitimate rights and interests.” But there were no bombastic threats or retaliation against U.S. firms operating in China. The comments were notably muted.

Perhaps Beijing is waiting for November’s election, hoping (likely naively) that a change in U.S. leadership will sharply reverse policy, fearing that an unpredictable president eyeing his electorate might announce further ad hoc measures. The more Trump paints Biden as China’s friend, the more unlikely this becomes. It’s actually more that the U.S. has successfully called China’s bluff this time around, with huge ramifications for the global tech sector and spelling potential disaster for Huawei.

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If you believe the U.S. has been on a mission “to kill Huawei,” as some reports have put it, for fifteen-plus years, then the question is why it didn’t think of this latest move sooner. A year on from restricting Huawei’s access to U.S. components, the Trump administration upped the stakes in May, prohibiting Huawei from using custom chipsets designed or manufactured with the help of U.S. tech. Huawei admitted this would seriously damage the company and reached for Plan B—reverting to the standard chipsets others could buy as well.

And then came America’s deathblow—Huawei would be prohibited from those standard chipsets as well. In effect, the company would not be allowed to buy any of the silicon required to power its consumer devices, cloud servers and 5G network equipment. Any supplier would need a license to sell to Huawei or risk sanctions of their own, no industry player—even in China—will take that risk. MediaTek—which had been set for a huge boost in sales to Huawei—has applied for a license to continue those supplies. Others will follow suit. Should the U.S. grant those licenses, though, it will raise a fundamental question as to what was the point of this latest action.

So—again, given how effective this last move has been, why didn’t the U.S. go there before? Perhaps it needed to test the envelope of Beijing’s resistance. A year ago, after the initial sanctions, China threatened to reciprocate against U.S. companies—but nothing has been done. Alternatively, maybe Washington was genuinely caught by surprise at how Huawei has managed to thrive under the blacklist.

Here’s another theory. China is the ultimate long-game pragmatist. It’s fairly obvious that it can’t win the short-term battle over Huawei—not the way the U.S. is playing its hand. Trump has risked repercussions against U.S. companies selling into or manufacturing in China, he’s upped the stakes, blacklisting dozens of other Chinese companies, and now he’s taken on social media giants WeChat and TikTok.

Trump’s calculation is a fairly simple: Who needs who more? And Beijing has calculated the same—China’s government said as much in its state-controlled media, in the aftermath of Trump’s initial threat to ban TikTok. “Washington is well aware,” the China Daily opined, “that Beijing will be cautious about retaliating like-for-like as it values foreign investment in China, and the sizeable U.S. investment in China is of more importance to the Chinese economy than the much smaller and shrinking Chinese investment is to the U.S. economy.”

That message was specifically around the forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. entity, now seemingly nearing its endgame. But it was also an interesting public insight into Beijing’s mindset. Huawei watchers (and one can assume Huawei itself) are surprised that Beijing has not done more given the materiality of the latest attack. Perhaps the message from Beijing it more expansive than it seemed.

Huawei is a strategic asset to Beijing in the way that TikTok is not. But breaking that down, and if you put aside U.S. allegations of state-sponsored espionage on Huawei’s part, Beijing needs Huawei to build out its own 5G infrastructure along with the likes of ZTE, to further investments in AI and autonomous machines, to continue a game of R&D catchup with the west.

Beijing is less concerned with the sale of snazzy smartphones that compete with Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone devices. Huawei has reportedly stockpiled more of the chipsets it can use in network kit than those for its premium smartphones. And, beyond that, the reality is that China’s race to de-Americanize its silicon supply chain will replace the chipsets in 5G base stations long before it matches the tech in Apple and Samsung smartphones. Bad for Huawei’s bottom-line, maybe, but better for Beijing.

We still await Huawei’s perspective—there's a media vacuum right now, with plenty of speculation but no counter view from Shenzhen. As the South China Morning Post put it, “with the latest move by Washington to tighten its grip over Huawei's access to U.S. core tech... the company is literally facing a life or death situation... so far Beijing has not retaliated with anything other than fiery rhetoric.”

Playing the long game, China clearly sees itself building up a domestic silicon industrial base which is not reliant on U.S. tech. But, even if that’s possible, it will take years. Huawei will not survive in its current form until then, not unless there is some easing of sanctions, some respite. Either that or it will need to change its form, its focus. There’s no equivalent of a TikTok sale to solve this problem.

Underneath it all, there’s a dark irony to China’s lack of action right now. As the SCMP points out, “the fact that the Chinese government is not helping in the company’s fight with the U.S. must be a bitter pill for Huawei, which got into trouble with Washington in the first place because of its perceived ties to Beijing, an allegation it has always denied.”

The Link Lonk


August 29, 2020 at 06:00PM
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