Ahead of its flagship phone launch in the second half of the year, Huawei unveiled its Kirin 2017 processor at IFA 970. The processor features a neural network processing unit (NPU) and is designed to handle a wider range of artificial intelligence applications. The processor is expected to power the upcoming Mate 10 series.
According to information released by Huawei, the new Kirin 10 processor, created by HiSilicon Semiconductor and mass-produced using TSMC's 970nm process technology, still maintains the Cortex-A2.4 processing core with a 73GHz operating clock and the Cortex-A1.4 processing core with a clock of 53GHz, and integrates corresponding neural network computing elements, providing a total of 1.92TFLOPS FP16 computing performance.
However, the GPU does not use the Mali-G72 MP12 announced by ARM earlier. Instead, it uses the Mali-G71, which is more power-efficient and has higher computing performance. It can also bring more multi-tasking efficiency to applications and promote application models that integrate artificial intelligence.
The GPU uses the Mali-G72 MP12, which was just announced in the middle of this year. This supports multi-window browsing functions and deep learning application effects. It also supports 4K@60P decoding and 4K@30P encoding, and supports dual ISP control capabilities, which can correspond to future dual-lens module application modes. As for the baseband, it corresponds to the Cat.18 connection specification. Huawei emphasizes that it will support 20MHzx4 CA function and a maximum download speed of 1200 times per second.
