KIRIN 990 FIRST TO INTEGRATE 5G

New Flagship Processor Also Leads in Smartphone AI Performance

By Linley Gwennap (September 30, 2019)

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Huawei is the first company to fully announce a high-end customers to prefer LTE in 2020; it also provides a
smartphone processor with an integrated 5G modem. The method of determining the 5G modem’s incremental cost.
Kirin 990, due to ship in phones later this year, comes in two The Kirin 990 will first appear in Huawei’s new flag-
flavors: the base model, which handles LTE (4G), and the ship phones: the Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro, and Mate 30 Pro 5G.
Kirin 990 5G. The two chips are functionally similar, having As the names imply, only the Pro 5G model features the
the same CPU and GPU configuration as well as the same Kirin 990 5G chip and 5G cellular capability. That model,
video, imaging, and memory specifications. In addition to which has a European list price of €1,200 ($1,300), features a
the faster modem, the 5G version offers a more powerful 6.5-inch screen that provides plenty of room for a capacious
neural engine and slightly higher CPU speeds. It uses 4,500mAh battery and a total of 21 antennas (14 just for 5G).
TSMC’s 7nm+ technology to boost speed; the LTE version All models feature three rear cameras: a 40-megapixel main
remains in the same 7nm technology as last year’s Kirin 980, camera, a wide-angle camera, and a telephoto camera. The
as the EUV-enabled 7nm+ isn’t yet ready for high-volume Pro models add a 3D depth sensor. The Mate 30 (€800) also
products. lacks the Pro models’ wraparound screen but is otherwise
The new chip integrates Huawei’s Balong technology, similar. The 4G models are expected to ship in October, but
which the company had earlier deployed in a standalone
modem chip. Because Chinese operators are initially launch- Kirin 990 5G Kirin 990
ing 5G in sub-6GHz bands, the chip’s peak 5G download 2x Cortex-A76 @2.86GHz 2x Cortex-A76 @2.86GHz
rate is limited to 2.3Gbps, making it only 65% faster than the
2x Cortex-A76 @2.36GHz 2x Cortex-A76 @2.09GHz
Kirin 980’s LTE modem. By integrating the modem, Huawei
can reduce board area, power, and manufacturing cost rela- 2x Cortex-A55 @1.95GHz 2x Cortex-A55 @1.86GHz
tive to current 5G phones, which all require a separate mo- 16C Mali-G76 GPU @600M 16C Mali-G76 GPU @600M
dem chip. Qualcomm plans to announce an integrated 5G
2x Big Da Vinci DLA 1x Big Da Vinci DLA
processor later this year, and other vendors expect to ship
such products next year. 1x Tiny Da Vinci DLA 1x Tiny Da Vinci DLA
Although 5G is the headline feature, the Kirin 990 System Cache System Cache
boasts other upgrades over the previous generation. For
ISP Video ISP Video
example, Huawei implemented a new deep-learning accel-
erator (DLA) based on its in-house DaVinci architecture, 802.11ac BT 5.0 802.11ac BT 5.0
tripling performance versus the previous generation while 5G+4G/3G/2G Modem 4G/3G/2G Modem
adding a low-power mode. The CPUs employ the same
Cortex-A76 design but increase the clock speed. As Figure 1 Figure 1. Kirin 990 models. The two are similar, but the 5G
shows, the Mali-G76 GPU moves from 10 to 16 cores to im- version adds a 5G modem and an extra deep-learning-
prove both performance and power efficiency. Developing accelerator (DLA) core. It also provides greater CPU speeds,
two versions of the chip indicates Huawei expects most of its shown in red, owing to its more advanced 7nm+ technology.

© The Linley Group • Microprocessor Report September 2019

 2 Kirin 990 First to Integrate 5G
the company didn’t provide a specific release date for the 5G
version.
5G Offers Wider Channels
In July, Huawei deployed the Balong 5000 as a 7.5Gbps
standalone modem chip in its initial 5G phone, the Mate
20X 5G. Although it withheld some details about the Kirin
990’s implementation, the new processor integrates an earli-
er modem design, the Balong 5G01 (see MPR 3/19/18,
“Huawei Joins 5G Modem Race”). Like that modem chip,
the 990 supports 3GPP Release 15 in both standalone and
non-standalone (SA and NSA) modes; although most initial
5G networks use NSA mode, relying on 4G for control sig-
nals and in many cases the uplink, Chinese operators plan to
deploy SA mode next year. The modem can theoretically
operate in any 5G band, but Huawei focuses on sub-6GHz
to meet the needs of Chinese operators; it hasn’t developed a
millimeter-wave (mmWave) RF front end.
The integrated modem has a peak 5G data rate of
2.3Gbps. It supports a single 5G carrier up to 100MHz wide,
the maximum width available in sub-6GHz spectrum. The
chip implements QAM-256 and 4x4 MIMO on the down-
link and can reach 23 bits per second (bps) per hertz, which
is 15% better than LTE in the same configuration. The 990
implements 2x2 MIMO on the uplink, delivering up to
1.25Gbps on a 100MHz carrier. When operating in TDD
mode, the chip must share a single carrier for downlink and
uplink, so it can’t achieve these peak rates simultaneously.
Unlike the Balong 5G01, the new modem supports
LTE and other lower-speed networks. For LTE, the Kirin
990 handles peak data rates of 1.6Gbps down and 200Mbps
up. To achieve this downlink rate, the modem can aggregate
LTE: 4xCA, 4x4 MIMO, 1.6Gbps peak
4x4 MIMO 4x4 MIMO 4x4 MIMO 4x4 MIMO
20bps
QAM-256 QAM-256 QAM-256 QAM-256
per Hz
20MHz 20MHz 20MHz 20MHz
5G: 1xCA, 4x4 MIMO, 2.3Gbps peak
Encoding Efficiency Gain
23bps 4x4 MIMO
per Hz QAM-256
One 100MHz carrier
Figure 2. Kirin 990 cellular data rates. The Kirin 990 includes
a 1.6Gbps LTE modem capable of aggregating four 20MHz
carriers (4xCA). The 5G model adds a 2.3Gbps 5G modem
that uses a single wide carrier. It can combine the output of
both modems to achieve 3.9Gbps.
© The Linley Group • Microprocessor Report
four carriers at 4x4 MIMO, as Figure 2 shows. The 5G mod-
el can aggregate data from 5G and LTE to achieve peak
speeds of 3.9Gbps down and 1.3Gbps up—roughly half the
Balong 5000’s throughput.
The advantages of integrating the modem into the pro-
cessor are significant. According to Huawei, the board area
for the Kirin 990 5G is 21% smaller than the combination of
the Snapdragon 855 and X55 modem and 26% smaller than
the Exynos 9825 and 5100 modem. The new modem draws
622mA, which the company claims is 11% less than the
Snapdragon design and 17% less than the Exynos design.
Integration eliminates the power needed to send signals be-
tween the processor and modem chips; the Kirin design also
uses a more advanced transistor design, which likely con-
tributes to the power savings.
The 5G modem is considerably bigger, however, than
the previous LTE design, adding cost over 4G-only models.
Huawei reports the Kirin 990 5G requires 10.3 billion tran-
sistors versus 8.8 billion for the base model. Although the 5G
part also includes an extra DLA core, the 5G capability adds
about one billion transistors, nearly double the transistor
count of a leading-edge LTE modem. The added cost comes
in part from the more complex 5G protocol, but the greater
factor is the extra processing required to handle higher data
rates. Integrating the Balong 5000, which can hit 7.5Gbps
(combining 5G and LTE), would have been an even bigger
addition, so the company decided to take a more moderate
approach by integrating the 3.9Gbps modem.
Bigger GPU Saves Power
The Kirin 990 employs the same three-tier CPU configura-
tion as the Kirin 980: two fast cores, two mid-tier cores, and
four power-efficient cores. The four fastest cores implement
the Cortex-A76 microarchitecture rather than upgrading to
the newer Cortex-A77 (see MPR 5/27/19, “Cortex-A77 Im-
proves IPC”). Although the A77 offers about 20% better
per-clock performance than the A76, Huawei expressed
concerns that the new core couldn’t reach the same clock
speeds even though it uses the same pipeline as the old
core. Samsung has already announced the first processor
based on Cortex-A77, the Exynos 980, but it targets a mod-
erate 2.2GHz CPU speed. We expect additional chips inte-
grating the A77 to reach production early next year.
Although the base Kirin 990 uses the same 7nm
technology as the Kirin 980, Huawei managed to increase
the Cortex-A76 clock speed by 10% to 2.86GHz and the
Cortex-A55 clock speed by 3%. The 7nm+ transistors offer
no increase in top-end speed, but the 5G processor takes
advantage of the improved power efficiency to boost the
speed of the mid-tier and low-speed cores. In fact, the mid-
tier cores run at 2.36GHz, 13% faster than in the base
model and 24% faster than in the Kirin 980. This big boost
raises the chip’s multicore performance, but it probably
reduces power efficiency relative to a slower implementation.
Overall, however, the 7nm+ technology improves power
September 2019

efficiency relative to 7nm by 10% at the transistor level. On
the basis of the faster CPUs, we expect a gain of 10% in
single-core performance and 14% in multicore perfor-
mance for the 5G model relative to the Kirin 980.
Moving from 10 to 16 GPU cores would theoretically
increase performance by up to 60%, but Huawei chose to
reduce its clock speed from 750MHz to 600MHz to save
power. The slower speed allows the GPU to operate at a low-
er voltage, boosting power efficiency by 23%, according to
the company. But the extra cores add considerable die area:
the Kirin 980 GPU requires 13.0mm2, and we estimate the
new configuration adds more than 50% (6.7mm2). This
growth accounts for most of the 1.9 billion incremental tran-
sistors in the Kirin 990 base model. Huawei expects the 990
to reach 75fps on the Manhattan 3.1 benchmark—39% bet-
ter than the 980.
The Kirin 990 implements a new system cache, which
Huawei calls a SmartCache. This 3.5MB cache serves the
CPUs, GPU, and DLA. Both Apple and Qualcomm have
implemented system caches for several generations. Huawei
expects the new cache to primarily improve GPU perfor-
mance; in the Kirin 980, the CPUs share a 4MB cache,
whereas the GPU has only 1MB of cache, so the GPU has a
greater need for more memory.
Big and Little DLA Cores
The Kirin 990 implements the same DaVinci DLA that de-
buted recently in the mid-premium Kirin 810 (see MPR
7/29/19, “Huawei Takes Lead in Smartphone AI”). Previ-
ous Kirin chips had a DLA licensed from Cambricon, a Chi-
nese supplier, but Huawei developed DaVinci to serve eve-
rything from phones to data centers. Although the company
describes both the 810 and the base 990 model as dual-core
designs, it recently clarified that the two cores aren’t identi-
cal. One core does the heavy lifting while a second “tiny”
core handles simple AI tasks such as wake-word detection.
The latter can operate at 15mA, whereas the former con-
sumes about 360mA, according to one example the compa-
ny showed. This low power allows the small core to handle
always-on applications, waking the bigger core only when
necessary. The 5G model includes a second big core for
greater performance; we estimate this change adds about
4mm2 (4%) to the die area.
Each big core implements the DaVinci “Lite” architec-
ture, which comprises an array of 2,048 multiply-accumulate
(MAC) units. Each unit can execute one 16-bit floating-
point (FP16) MAC or two 8-bit integer (INT8) MACs per
cycle. We estimate the core runs at up to 1.0GHz, giving the
two cores a combined peak output of about 8Tflop/s for
FP16—double the 980’s rating—or 16 TOPS for INT8. FP16
and INT8 are two popular formats for AI inference, and
because the Android-based AI-Benchmark requires both,
the Huawei DLA scores particularly well on that metric. The
810 already tops all other shipping smartphone processors,
and the 990 5G more than doubles the 810’s score.
© The Linley Group • Microprocessor Report
Kirin 990 First to Integrate 5G 3
Price and Availability
Huawei uses the Kirin processors in its own phones
but doesn’t sell them to other companies. The first phones
based on the Kirin 990, including the Mate 30, are
expected to ship in 4Q19. For more information, access
consumer.huawei.com/en/campaign/kirin-990-series.
In other ways, the new processor carries forward fea-
tures from the Kirin 980. Both handle four 16-bit channels
of LPDDR4X-4266 memory, the fastest speed available for
that technology. DRAM vendors have released initial
LPDDR5 chips at transfer rates up to 5,500MHz, but these
chips remain in limited supply and carry a higher price per
byte. We expect the supply to increase, allowing premium
smartphones to adopt LPDDR5 in the first half of next year.
The 990 improves image-processing (ISP) perfor-
mance by a modest 15%. The ISP adds new noise-reduction
capabilities for video, which are particularly useful in low
light. The video engine handles 4K encoding and decoding
at 60fps, whereas the 980’s 4K encoding is limited to 30fps.
The new chip implements Wi-Fi 802.11ac with a peak rate
of 1.7Gbps using a 160MHz-wide channel, and it offers
Bluetooth 5.0.
Facing Off Against Snapdragon
Huawei reserves its Kirin processors for its own phones, so
they don’t directly compete against other smartphone pro-
cessors. But Kirin 990 phones will compete against phones
using Qualcomm’s next-generation flagship processor,
which we expect to be called the Snapdragon 865. Since that
product is unannounced, however, we compare the new
Kirin chips against the Snapdragon 855+, which has been
shipping since August (see MPR 8/19/19, “Snapdragon
855+ Aims at Gaming”). This product offers slightly higher
performance than the standard Snapdragon 855, mainly by
boosting the power.
The 855+ cranks up its top-end Cortex-A76 CPU to
2.96GHz, giving it slightly better single-thread CPU perfor-
mance than either 990 model. Although it has only one
“prime” core, its three middle cores are also faster than the
990’s. As a result, we expect the chips will have nearly identi-
cal multicore performance, as Table 1 shows. Qualcomm
hasn’t posted graphics scores for the 855+, but on the basis
of scores for the 855, we expect the faster version to at least
match the 990. At its low clock speed, the Kirin design is
more power efficient than the overclocked 855+, however.
Both Kirin models crush the 855+ on ETH’s AI-
Benchmark; the 990 5G, with its two big DLAs, outscores
the 855+ by more than 2x. Qualcomm’s DLA design, how-
ever, focuses on INT8 computation; FP16 operations typi-
cally run on the GPU, which has lower performance. Thus,
for neural networks quantized to INT8, it performs similarly
September 2019
 4 Kirin 990 First to Integrate 5G

to the 990 5G, but it falls well short on FP16 tests, as Table 1 990, Apple continues to rely on 7nm TSMC technology for
indicates. The total AI-Benchmark score weighs heavily this generation.
toward FP16 computation, although INT8 is growing in
popularity. Winning in 5G and AI
Of course, the 990 5G uniquely integrates a 5G mo- Huawei has passed a significant milestone by introducing
dem, but for LTE, the 855 actually offers better peak speeds. the first processor with an integrated 5G modem. The race
In fact, the 990’s 5G data rate is only slightly faster than the isn’t over, though, as the company has yet to announce a
855’s LTE rate, although the 990 can achieve much higher ship date for the Mate 30 Pro 5G, the first phone using the
speeds when combining 5G and LTE. The 855 also imple- Kirin 990 5G. In the meantime, Qualcomm expects phones
ments the latest 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) protocol. Even though using its first integrated 5G processor, which remains unan-
the 990 is limited to the less efficient 802.11ac, it supports up nounced, early next year. Even so, Huawei’s 5G milestone
to 160MHz channels for a peak data rate of 1.7Gbps. The demonstrates that its engineering team is among the best in
855 is limited to 80MHz channels and tops out at 1.2Gbps in the world. In addition, the Kirin 990 takes the lead in deep-
802.11ax mode. Both chips can play and record 4K video at learning performance. Again, competitors will improve over
60fps. The 855 implements more ISP features than the Kirin time, but Huawei has set a high bar.
and can handle a single camera up to 192 megapixels. The decision to release separate 5G and 4G models is
Apple recently announced the iPhone 11, which in- pragmatic, enabling the company to release 4G-only ver-
cludes its new A13 processor. The A13 requires a separate sions of its flagship phones at a lower price than the 5G
modem chip, and the company doesn’t offer a 5G iPhone. versions, which will include additional RF chips as well as
But for 4G phones, the A13 delivers much better single- the larger and more costly 5G processor. Even without
thread CPU performance than either the 990 or the 855, 5G, the Kirin 990 base model offers considerably better
along with superior GPU performance. Like the base Kirin AI performance and better peak Wi-Fi performance than
the Snapdragon 855+ while delivering similar
Huawei Huawei Qualcomm CPU and graphics performance. The upcoming
Kirin 990 5G Kirin 990 Snapdragon 855+
Snapdragon 865, due a few months after the
Biggest CPU (max 2x Cortex-A76, 2x Cortex-A76, 1x Cortex-A76,
Kirin 990, will be more competitive.
clock, L2 cache) 2.86GHz, 512KB 2.86GHz, 512KB 2.96GHz, 512KB
Big CPU (max clock, 2x Cortex-A76, 2x Cortex-A76, 3x Cortex-A76, As more vendors release 5G smartphone
L2 cache) 2.36GHz, 512KB 2.09GHz, 512KB 2.40GHz, 256KB processors, the discussion will shift from who’s
Little CPU (max clock, 4x Cortex-A55, 4x Cortex-A55, 4x Cortex-A55, first to who’s best. At 3.9Gbps, the Kirin 990 5G
L2 cache) 1.95GHz, 128KB 1.86GHz, 128KB 1.80GHz, 128KB offers twice the peak throughput of today’s fast-
CPU Perf (ST/MT)* 13.4/46.6‡ 13.4/44.5‡ 13.8/45.0‡
est 4G networks but about half the performance
GPU Type Mali-G76 MP16 Mali-G76 MP16 Adreno 640
GPU Clock Speed 600MHz 600MHz 672MHz of the fastest 5G chips. This choice represents a
Manhattan 3.1 1080p 75fps 75fps 75fps‡ compromise between maximizing data rate and
AI Accelerator DaVinci 2-core† DaVinci 1-core† Hexagon 690 minimizing added cost. The integrated chip can
AI-Benchmark Total 76,206 61,303 32,727 handle the full data rate for China Telecom and
AI-Benchmark INT8 6,899 5,550‡ 6,482
China Unicom (and most other sub-6GHz op-
AI-Benchmark FP16 38,042 30,600‡ 8,810
System Cache 3.5MB 3.5MB 3MB erators) but not for the largest operator, China
DRAM Speed LPDDR4X-4266 LPDDR4X-4266 LPDDR4X-4266 Mobile, which owns more 5G spectrum. Huawei’s
Cellular Protocols 5G/4G/3G/2G 4G/3G/2G 4G/3G/2G Mate 20 X 5G, which combines the Kirin 980 and
Modem Speed (dn/up) 3.8Gbps/1.2Gbps 1.6Gbps/0.2Gbps 2.0Gbps/0.3Gbps the Balong 5000 modem, is designed for China
Wi-Fi Protocol (rate) 11ac, 1.7Gbps 11ac, 1.7Gbps 11ax, 1.2Gbps
Mobile’s peak speed.
IC Process TSMC 7nm+ TSMC 7nm TSMC 7nm
Transistor Count 10.3 billion 8.8 billion Undisclosed The Chinese government has placed par-
First Phones 4Q19 (est) 4Q19 3Q19 ticular emphasis on gaining leadership in cer-
Table 1. Kirin 990 versus Snapdragon 855+. The Kirin 990 leads in AI per- tain critical technologies, including 5G and AI.
formance and supports 5G, but the new Snapdragon 855+ offers similar By delivering the Kirin 990 5G, Huawei has ac-
performance in other regards. *Relative to 1.0GHz Cortex-A9 across sever- complished these two goals. The battle for smart-
al mobile benchmarks; †plus one low-power “tiny core.” (Source: vendors phone supremacy continues to rage, but for now,
and AI-benchmark.com, except ‡The Linley Group estimate) Huawei has the lead. ♦

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© The Linley Group • Microprocessor Report September 2019