Huawei, back to square one, is apparently planning to build an indigenous 45nm chip within a year

A report by a Weibo tipster indicates that Huawei is starting from the top with its indigenous CPU manufacturing strategy. The Chinese phone manufacturer is evidently planning to collaborate with a Chinese fab in order to build a fully indigenous 45nm chip within the next year. 

Weibo tipster “Peng Peng Jun arrived” claimed that Huawei will “take root in all aspects,” implying that the company will go right back to the roots of the technology. A fully indigenous 45nm chipset would be a first step towards eliminating Huawei’s dependence on Western brands and IP, as it faces intense scrutiny, pressure, and sanctions by a number of governments. 

However, this report also implies that it might be several years before we see competitive chips from Huawei again. To put things into perspective, 2011’s MSM7227A, featuring the Adreno 200, was built on the 45nm process, and is an order of magnitude slower than modern SoCs. Unless Huawei follows an accelerated cadence or skips over multiple fab processes, the “Tashan” CPU project might end up being too little, too late.