Huawei has introduced the successor to their Kirin 970 processor during IFA 2018. The Kirin 980 is heavily focused on AI as this time, it comes with Dual NPU AI cores which Huawei has claimed will help in the intelligence of its AI features.
The Kirin 980 is built upon the TSMC 7nm process technology which allows the processor to house 6.9 million transistors within the chip and it delivers 20 percent improved performance and 40 percent improved efficiency. The new processor is using the Cortex-A76 cores which offer 75 percent more power and 58 percent more efficient compared to the previous generation. The processor uses four Cortex-A76 cores, two for high-performance and the other two of high-efficiency. Four of the cores are accompanied by four efficient Cortex-A55 cores.
Huawei has developed a CPU subsystem that will intelligently allocate a particular task to the right cores, the high-performance core will handle immediate and intensive workloads, the high-efficiency cores provide sustained performance and the ultra-efficient cores tackle everyday task. Huawei also introduced the Mali-G76 GPU which will offer 46 percent greater graphics processing power at 178 percent improved power efficiency.
Finally, Huawei also mentioned that the new processor will utilize multi-pass noise reduction that will accurately remove artefacts without tampering with image details and improved motion tracking. The modem that comes with the processor is the first to support LTE Cat.21 with a peak download speed of 1.4Gbps.
The Kirin 980 will first release on the new Mate 20 devices which will be unveiled in October 2018.
