Huawei finds a way to make faster chips in the future

Moore’s Law has become obsolete even as chips continue to get faster. Greater computing density requires more than shrinking semiconductor processes. Huawei proposes Tau’s Law, where time within a chip remains a major source of performance improvement. Communication delays inside processors provide room for higher throughput. LogicFolding is presented as a set of efficiency improvements applied both within chips and in the devices that contain them. The approach includes reducing resistance and parasitic capacitance across semiconductor components. It also targets the practical margins required to measure and transmit binary 1s and 0s under physical constraints. Huawei says it cannot achieve this alone and plans phased adoption in its Kirin mobile chips, aiming for a quality level comparable to Intel’s 14A by 2031, constrained by U.S. sanctions on advanced EUV lithography.

"Moore's Law has been obsolete for years. Although chips are still getting faster, this is only partly due to the fact that the processes used to build them are shrinking. Greater computing density requires more than just ever-smaller semiconductors. According to Huawei, we need to look to light, and with it, a successor to Moore's Law: Tau's Law. Tau's Law, where Tau () stands for time."

"According to Huawei, there is still plenty of Tauand thus timeto be gained within a chip. Communication delays within a processor still offer plenty of room for chipmakers to achieve higher throughput speedsand thus performance gains. This requires the application of LogicFolding, the name Huawei uses for a series of efficiency improvements both within and outside the chips it produces."

"LogicFolding is a mix of improvements to chip design and the design of the device in which this processor is located. Think of reducing the resistance and parasitic capacitance of semiconductors, regardless of where they are located within a device. Because the digital world of computers is, in theory, completely binary but must, in practice, comply with the laws of nature, there is always some margin in the measurement and transmission of a 1 or a 0. Optimization in that area is where Huawei sees the performance gains of the future happening."

"Although it claims to have already produced 381 chips based on Tau's law, LogicFolding will not be implemented in the mobile Kirin chips of Huawei phones until later this year. By 2031, Huawei expects the Tau law to bring the company to a quality equivalent of the current 14A process. 14A is still in its infancy at Intel, which is using ASML's High-NA EUV machines for this purpose for the first time. U.S. sanctions prevent Huawei from accessing advanced EUV lithography machines, which are necessary for modern processes."

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